Timekiller
by MaBre85
Summary: The universe is dead. Nothing survived, except Max Caulfield. She's all alone and without any clue about what happened. Her only chance to safe everyone is to remember. But Max's memories do not just contain the cause for this apocalyptic catastrophe, but also a blue-haired punk and a dark secret that intertwined both of their fates. Rated M for violence and adault topics.
1. Prologue

**Timekiller**

 **Prologue**

" _Time is my slave. It bows to me like every being in this entire universe should. I am a goddess among gods. Whoever dares to defy me, will be eradicated from existence…even if it is time itself."_

\- Amun'shek II, self-announced God-Empress of the Neph'arim-Empire

* * *

' _You need to remember!_ '

The world was born in flames, the world will die in flames.

As Max Caulfield woke up, she witnessed how everything around her was buried in a cataclysmic fire.

She should be dead, devoured and turned into ashes by the superhot plasma, but she was still alive.

She should be blinded by the intense brightness, but could still see the massive destruction.

She shouldn't be able to breathe, but oxygen still filled her lungs anyway.

' _You need to remember!_ '

As fast as the inferno occurred, as fast it was gone again. The earth's surface was still glowing red, like an ocean of lava. But not for long. Soon, it became nothing more than a desert made of black, scorched stone.

Although the earth's atmosphere had been burned and blasted away, the sky was covered with beautiful clouds of various kinds of colors. The last gaseous remnants of the sun, enlightened by its residual radiation. But it faded soon, too.

The emerging dark night sky, once a black vail, sprinkled with thousands of stars, was now the stage for an intergalactic firework of exploding suns. A beautiful symphony of destruction.

' _Max, you need to remember!_ '

Soon, the last supernovae enlightened the almost completely black sky one last time, before absolute darkness devoured everything.

The universe was dead. Nothing had survived, except one being: Maxine Caulfield. She didn't know why or how, but she was still alive. She'd just witnessed the end of everything and the knowledge that she was the only thing that remained made her despair. Fear dug its claws deep into her heart as Max realized that there was no one left. Everything she knew wasn't there anymore. She was alone; alone in this absolute darkness, unaware of how or why everything was gone. She sobbed, once…twice, until the perfect silence was only broken by her intense crying.

' _Remember what happened! Only you can safe them!_ '

Max didn't know how long she'd cried. Time was absent, it was dead, like the rest of the universe. She heard this strange voice inside of her head, repeating itself constantly, almost driving her insane, until it said one name.

' _You need to remember! Remember…Chloe!_ '

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **As announced, I'm working on another story besides "Rewound". I've already written the first few chapters and it's definitely going somewhere. This story's gonna be my sideproject when I need a short break from Rewound, so updates might need some time.**

 **Also, this story won't contain that much fluff or romance, but focuses more on action, adault topics and violence, so please take the M-Rating serious!**


	2. Chapter 1: Blue-haired Girl

**Chapter 1: Blue-haired Girl**

September 3rd 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon

"Hi, my name is Max Caulfield and I'm your campus guide today!" said a small, skinny, brunette girl with chin-long hair and a freckled face to a small crowd of young people. They stood in front of a big fountain which was situated right in front of the main building of the famous Blackwell Academy, a private school for Art and Science.

The brunette girl pointed at the big metallic statue in the center of the fountain that stood high above them. "This is Jeremiah Blackwell. He founded our school in 1910 with the goal to bring out the excellence in everyone, who visits these hallow halls of wisdom." she continued with a smile, which faltered instantly as she realized that most of the budding students were either chitchatting with each other or playing with their smartphones.

' _Ugh, at least they could pretend to give a fuck about what I'm saying. Assholes!_ ' Max thought and sighed internally. ' _Okay, calm down, Max! This is the last time you're doing this. Next year, Wells can look for some other idiot, who guides these fucking freshmen all around his stupid school!_ '

"If you have any questions, don't hesitate, just shoot."

' _As if…_ '

As predicted, nobody seemed to have noticed her, so Max just continued.

"Okay, no questions so far. Then, let's move on into the main building," the small girl spoke and the crowd followed her as she headed for the stair which lead to the main entrance. "Inside this building you'll find the class and activity rooms, labs, as well as the administration, the cafeteria and the faculty lounge."

"Hey, yo, wait up!" a female voice suddenly chimed as Max was about to climb up the steps. She turned around and saw a tall girl, who wore punk-rock clothes and a dark-blue beanie, running towards her.

"Hey…sorry…I'm a…I'm a bit late." the punk girl gasped as she tried to catch a breath, resting her body with her hands on her thighs. "Can…can I still join the tour?"

"Sure thing! It's not like you'd need a reservation." Max answered the unfamiliar girl with a smile and a shrug, and walked towards her. "You need a minute?"

The taller girl nodded frantically and ripped the beanie off her head, revealing shining blue chin-long hair. "Fuuuuck, I need to stop smoking!" she said, raised her head and gave Max a wry smile. "Thanks for waiting!"

As the freckled girl saw the punk-girl's face, her heart skipped a beat. Heat crawled up into her face and a wild bunch of butterflies gave a crazy flight-show inside her belly. "N-no p-problem….uh…" she stammered as her gaze dropped and her right arm took a hold of her left one.

' _Wowser! She's hot as fuck! And I just turned into a pathetic pile of shyness. Great!_ '

Noticing that the other people were already staring at them, the bluenette gazed back with an angry glare. "What the fuck are you looking at, huh?!" Instantly, everybody returned to the activity that they were doing before. Satisfied with the result, the tall girl straightened herself, cracked with her neck and touched Max's shoulder softly. "Yo, dude, wanna go on with the tour?"

"Y-yeah…sorry!" Max cleaned her throat and tried to continue the tour, without sounding too nervous. "Uhm…a-as I said, this is the main building and….I-I…" Her gaze falls onto the mischievously smiling punk-girl again. "…w-wanna show you my roo-…uh…shit! I mean, I wanna show you some of y-your future class rooms and labs now."

' _Ugh, hold it together, Max. She's just a girl…well, a pretty cute girl…with blue hair and punk attire…and she's sexy…and…ugh, fuck! I crush on her!_ ' Max thought while they went on. Another soft touch on her shoulder almost made her jump scare and as she turned around she was looking into a pair of intensive blue, almond-shaped eyes.

"Hey, dude, are you okay? You seem a bit off." the bluenette whispered.

"M-me? No!"

"Then why did we just walk past two class rooms and labs, if you wanted to show them to us?"

Max scanned her surroundings and realized that she indeed walked too far, but only the bluenette seemed to have noticed this fact, telling her that she was the only one who's actually paying attention.

"Yo, midget, this tour sucks!" a tall, blonde guy spoke from within the crowd, earning him some snickers by his fellow freshmen.

Without any warning, the blue-haired punk jumped into the bunch of gasping students and grabbed the guy by the collar of his jacket. "Then why don't you just fuck off? You never gave a fuck 'bout this tour anyway, dickhead!" she hissed with gritted teeth. Everybody was now looking at them, a tense atmosphere filled the hallway, only broken by another soft touch, but this time it was Max's.

"Hey, i-it's okay. Not the first time someone gave me shit during a tour." the brunette spoke a bit shyly.

"But this doesn't mean that you have to take it!" the punk replied and loosened her grip on the guy's collar, giving him a slight push which made him stumble backwards. "And to the rest of ya," she addressed and glimpsed at the others, "If you have any interest in this tour, then shut the fuck up and listen to this girl, or take a hike! Got it?"

Now nodding frantically, Max's audience put away their phones and stayed silent, waiting for the guided tour to continue.

"Th-thank you!" Max whispered and was rewarded with another impish smile as the taller girl turned around.

"No problem, dude! Sometimes you need to kick some butts to get people's attention. Name's Chloe, by the way." the punk-girl told Max, reaching the freckled girl her hand.

"M-Max." was her plain answer and as she shook Chloe's hand, she suddenly had a strange feeling, like some sort of energy was flowing between them.

* * *

With a loud click the door to Max's small office was locked. The small girl leaned her back against it, closed her eyes and exhaled deeply.

' _Gosh, what a fucked up tour! Every year it got worse. Luckily, Chloe was there to safe my ass._ '

Thinking about the blue-haired punk-girl painted a smile on her face. She reached inside the pocket of her blue jeans, brought forth a little piece of paper and glanced at it.

' _She really gave me her number and she REALLY wants to meet me for lunch. Wowser, I never crushed so hard on someone before._ _But…ugh…I shouldn't expect too much. In the end, she's just so friendly to me, because she feels pity for my sorry butt and that's all. Why should a cool girl like her crush on a geek like me anyway?'_

' _Shit, I'm busting my ass again. Distract yourself, Max!_ '

Max took off her old cam bag, walked over to her desk and sat down. While her PC booted up, she typed Chloe's number into her phone.

' _Should I send her a text right away? Nah, that would just look too desperate._ '

With another deep sigh, she laid the phone on the desk and opened her email-program.

' _Let's see, what help do my fellow students need today?_ '

After her profile was loaded Max groaned as she saw the enormous number of unread mails. She opened the first one and rolled with her eyes.

' _Dammit, Brooke, I'm your student council, not a date doctor. If Warren isn't into you, then just accept it and move on! You didn't want to date me, so it's your problem to get your sex from someone else!_ '

She wrote a short reply and carried on. The next mail was from Blackwell's English teacher, Miss Hoida.

' _Oh no, Nathan, not again! I know Vicky will go all ballistic on me, but this time I won't safe your sorry, rich ass! But I will give him a chance to explain this bullshit._ '

Again, Max typed a reply and, additionally, sent a mail to Nathan Prescott.

Her eyebrow arched as she continued her work and read the next messages.

' _The rest of these mails are complains about Vortex-Club members. Bullying, harassment, violent behavior…fuck! And school hasn't even started, yet._ '

The young girl buried her face in her hands and let out a big groan.

' _Shit! And what am I suppose to answer them? "Sorry, my fellow students, but our dear Principal can't do anything, 'cause he has a fucking stick up his ass."?'_

' _Thanks, mom and dad, for "encouraging" me to become the student council at a school full of assholes!'_

The sudden chime of her phone brought Max back from her desperate thoughts. She unlocked it and a big smile was formed by her lips as she glimpsed at the ID.

[Chloe]: _yo!_

[Chloe]: _hippie!_

[Chloe]: _don't forget our lunch date!_

Her eyes widen as she fixed her attention to one word.

' _Date? Did she really…No, Max! Don't go there! That would just be wishful thinking.'_

[Max]: _Nope, lunch is still a go! :-)_

[Chloe]: _then I hope to see ur sweet ass here in 5 minutes._

[Chloe]: _btw: no emojis!_

Max glanced at the time and almost fell off the chair as she realized how late it already was.

' _Shit! What's wrong with you today, Max? Pft, I know what's wrong with me: a stunning gorgeous blue-haired girl and a year without sex. That's what's wrong with you! Okay, Caulfield, put your hormones back in the box and focus just once!'_

Without wasting another second, Max shut down her PC, grabbed her stuff and made her way to the cafeteria in a fast pace.

* * *

"There she is!" Chloe cheered as Max approached the table.

"Sorry for being late!" Max answered and sat down, instantly averting the bluenette's gaze.

"No thing, Maximus! It's just been a few minutes. And as you might've noticed this morning my sense for punctuality's hella fucked, too."

"Yeah…" was Max's short, scoffed answer, before an almost uncomfortable silence occurred.

' _C'mon, idiot, say something!_ ' she thought, but Chloe was faster.

"Sooo…uhm…wanna grab some munch or…? Max?"

As Max managed to look into Chloe's catching blue eyes again, she felt the need to run away. Her mouth was completely dry and not able to form any words. Her heart raced and she felt sick because of all those butterflies inside of her stomach. Max knew that she was on the brink of having a panic attack. Only the, sadly too familiar, voice of Victoria Chase was able to stop this vicious circle Max was captured in.

"Maxine, we need to talk!"

' _Aaand here we go…ugh!_ '

Max raised her sight and looked at a tall girl with short, blonde hair, wearing some high fashion clothes. Her voice was dripping with arrogance and she was flanked by two other girls, her all-time minions Courtney and Taylor.

"Maxine, I know you're the student council, but this doesn't give you the right to bully Nate!"

"WHAT?!" the small girl yelled and jumped up. "I covered this little fucker's ass more than once! Not for him, but for you. And this is how you thank me?"

Unimpressed by the brunette's outburst, Victoria just crossed her arms. "Nathan has some problems, yes, but he goes through some difficult times and doesn't need more shit on his agenda."

"Then, maybe, he should stop insulting teachers and vandalizing school property!"

"Yo, I don't know this Nathan-fella, but I'm sure he's old enough to take responsibility for his own actions. Otherwise, he's either a crybaby or a giant pussy." Chloe commented the conversation in order to back up Max, earning an evil glare from Victoria.

"And you are…?" the blonde asked condescendingly.

Chloe stayed relaxed and an impish grin formed on her face. Although, she just met her a few hours ago, Max could already tell that this won't go without any trouble.

"The name's Yura. Yura Anassclown."

Max needed every bit of composure she could muster not to burst out into loud laughter, but failed completely as Victoria didn't understand the pun.

"Listen, Yura…what's so funny, Maxine?"

"Y…you…are…a…an…assclown…" Max managed to say between her laughter, while Chloe joined in now. Not even Courtney and Taylor were able to suppress a chuckle.

Victoria's face turned beet-red, like she was about to explode. "Listen, bitch," she hissed, "keep your ugly punk-face out of things you know shit 'bout!"

"Oooh, now I'm scaaared." Chloe shot back with a fake trembling voice full of sarcasm.

"YOU…"

"Victoria!" Max intervened, before things could get out of hands. "Leave her alone! She's right, y'know? Nathan should be responsible for his actions. That's why I want him to come into my office tomorrow and talk about this shit, before I give a report to Wells. Got it?"

The blonde's jaw and her hands were clenched, but she agreed with a nod.

"And another thing is the Vortex-Club. They're already harassing other students and I'm tired to report this shit again and again, and nothing changes. Victoria…" As if the touch by the smaller girl on Victoria's cheek had some magical powers, the blonde relaxed instantly. She locked eyes with Max and her expression became soft. "…please talk to them. Most of the students are here to learn something, not to get bullied or party their shit off. You understand?"

Once more, Victoria nodded. "Y-yeah, I'm gonna talk to them." she said quietly and was about to leave as she gave Chloe one last agitated glimpse. "Stay away from her!" she hissed and walked away.

Exhaling deeply, Max let herself fall onto her seat and rested her head with her hand to the forehead on the table. "Sorry 'bout that!"

"What. A. Bitch!" Chloe mentioned. "Seemed to me like this wasn't your first fight with her."

"No." Max huffed and shook her head.

"Like an old couple, ey?" the bluenette tried to mock, but Max stayed serious.

"That's actually not far away from the truth. She…uhm…she's my ex-girlfriend."

Chloe arched one eyebrow, her face radiating pure unbelief. "Ex-girlfriend? You actually dated this bitch?"

"She wasn't always like this, Chloe." The brunette girl straightened her body, a melancholically tone chiming with her voice. "We both went to the same Art-School in Seattle. She, the rich It-Girl, and me, the poor photo-geek on a scholarship. But against all odds, we became best friends, because we both shared the same passion: photography. Over the years we became closer and closer, until…well…"

"You two fucked!" Chloe threw in with a wide grin.

"What?! I-I mean yeah, b-but not right away. Geez, Chloe!" Max blurted out with a blush, earning a snicker from the punk-girl. "A-anyway, she was always nice, and a very good and sweet girlfriend, until…" The freckled girl needed to take another deep inhale. Her lip shivered a bit. "Until we came to Blackwell. From the first day on, Vicky met some of those Vortex fuckers and…changed. She became arrogant, patronizing, took drugs 'n' shit. I tried to tag along for some time, but I always felt out of my league." First tears ran down her freckled face as all those memories rushed through her mind. "As soon as I went my own way, the bullying started and Victoria…she left me hanging, because she wanted to be one of them. I felt left alone, but…I still loved her…" Max's voice broke and it took her a lot to suppress a sob.

"Stupid cunt! Are you okay?" Chloe asked with concern and grabbed the smaller girl's hand softly.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." Max said and sniffed. "Anyway, what followed were a lot of fights and a year ago I gave her one final choice: me or the Vortex Club."

"Let me guess what she chose."

"You would've guessed wrong, 'cause she chose nothing."

"What?"

"She never gave me an answer, but I couldn't take it anymore, so I broke up with her."

"Okay. Wow, that hella sucks! And how did she take it?"

"I don't know," Max said with a shrug, "we never talked about it again, but I think she regrets it."

"Really? She didn't seem to be that sad."

"Victoria…she's pretty good at hiding her emotions. But I know her rather well and there are some short moments, like when we see each other during classes or in the hallway, where I can see the hurt in her eyes. Maybe…maybe she hopes I might give her another chance."

"And, would you?"

"No," Max answered fast, shaking her head, "She made her choice as she stayed with the Vortex Club, period!"

"Hey…uhm…I don't wanna be kinda blunt…which I am…sometimes, but can we get some grub now, 'cause I'm hella starving." Chloe said, scratching the back of her neck.

"Yeah, sure." Max replied and wiped away the remaining wet lines from her face. Both girls stood up and walked over to the counter to get their meal. "Sorry for unloading my fucked up love-life on you." To her own surprise, Chloe wrapped one arm around her slender shoulders, making the heat inside of her emerging again.

"No thing, Maxi! Do ya mind if I call you Maxi?"

"N-no, but why Maxi?"

"'Cause you're so hella adorable!"

Yet, another wave of heat flooded the small girl's body as she was dragged along. Pressed so close to the punk-girl, Max could smell a mixture of cold smoke, cheep perfume and a sweet scent, which was probably her personal odor. A scent she'd love to smell for all eternity.

Both girls filled up their trays with food and snacks, and sat back down. At first both ate in silence, because Max was, once more, caught in deep thoughts, and Chloe was busy stuffing the food in her mouth.

"So, tell me something," Max spoke, in order to break this uncomfortable quietness, "Why do you always say _hella_?"

Chloe stopped chewing and glimpsed at the freckled girl for some time, before she gulped down the food. "Well…some girl at the orphanage always used it and…uhm…I don't know. It became kind of an addiction."

"Orphanage?" Max said with eyes wide open, dropping her fork.

Instantly, the blue-haired girl stopped eating. Her expression became stern. "Yup, Orphanage. Got a problem with that?"

"N-no! It's just…You're an orphan?"

"Yeah, my…my parents died in a car crash when I was a little girl. I had no relatives who could take me in, so…"

Wasting no time, Max leaned forward and grabbed Chloe's hand. "Oh my god, that's just horrible! I'm so sorry, Chloe!"

"Why?" Chloe responded with a shrug, now lowering her gaze in sadness. "You didn't kill my parents and…I can't even remember anything that happened before the accident anyway. Some sort of PTSD-shit, y'know?"

"But…damn! And nobody adopted you?"

"No…well, kinda…but…" She exhaled deeply, took off her beanie and brushed with one hand through her blue hair. "Can we please talk about something else, 'cause I'm about to get hella depressed, and when I'm depressed I start to rage and I don't wanna go all berserk on you."

"S-sure." Max said, but stayed silent, because her head was still busy coping what she'd just heard.

' _Holy shit! Both parents dead, childhood spent in an orphanage, no family. And I thought my childhood was a mess._ '

"So, student council, huh?"

Ripped from her deep thoughts by Chloe's nonchalant off-topic question, Max needed some time to snap back to reality. "Wh-what?"

"Student council. You. Icky Vicky mentioned it. How come?"

"Ugh, it's a long and rather fucked story. I don't wanna bore you with the details right now."

"Believe me, Maxi, you're everything else but boring." Chloe mentioned, adding an impish smile and a wink.

' _Did she just flirt with me, or…_ '

"Hey Max!" another female voice chimed through the cafeteria, but in contrast to Victoria's, this one painted an actual smile on Max's face. She turned around and saw a beautiful, blonde girl with a feather-earing, walking towards her table in a bee-line.

"Rachel!" Max jumped up and took the blonde into a tight embrace. "How was France?" she asked after they parted.

"Très magnifique! Bummer that you couldn't come with us."

Max's expression became a bit sad. "I know. But you know my parents…"

"Yeah." Rachel shifted her gaze to Chloe now, who looked at the two girls with a slight agitation. Trying to stay positive, Rachel gave the punk-girl a friendly smile. "Who's your new friend there?"

"Oh, right. Sorry! Rachel, meet Chloe Price. Chloe, this is Rachel Amber."

"Hi there, Chloe!" Rachel said, reaching the punk-girl her hand.

At first, Chloe just changed her view from Rachel's face to her hand and back, but in order to not be an asshole, she decided to shake it.

"Heya, Rachel!"

For a short moment, as their hands touched, Rachel's smile faltered, but instantly reappeared. She frowned. "Say, Chloe, have we met somewhere before? You kinda look familiar."

"I don't think so," the bluenette snorted, "Unless you've been to Portland lately."

"No, never been there…sadly. But maybe we three should make a road trip to Portland and you could show us around, Chloe!"

"Sorry, but nothing will ever drag my ass back there!"

Realizing that there was a lot of tension between the two girls, Max intervened. "Maybe we should rather make a road trip to Long Beach. Sun. Beach. Non-alcoholic cocktails."

"Non-alcoholic?" Chloe said, scrunching up her nose. "You need a hella better influence, girl!"

"And I thought that's what you are here for now!" Max returned with a flirting tone.

Rachel's gaze wandered between the blue-haired punk and the brunette girl for some time, a wide smirk growing on her lips. "Okaaaay, I think I'm gonna leave you two alone now. Need to prepare some shit for tomorrow anyway. Max, girl's night out is still a go?"

"Yup, but…uhm…c-can I bring Chloe, too?"

"What?!" Chloe blurted out, almost falling off the chair.

"Of course! C'mon, Chloe, it's gonna be fun!" added Rachel.

Max looked at her with pleading eyes, eventually making her sigh in annoyance. "Fine, I'll be there. Happy?"

Nodding frantically, the brunette girl gave her a wide smile. "Hella happy!"

"Okay, then it's settled! Drinks are gonna be on me. See ya tomorrow, girls!" Rachel spoke overjoyed, gave Max a short embrace and Chloe a wave and left.

Max continued eating her meal, Chloe didn't. She just kept on gazing at the freckled girl.

' _Why is she looking at me like this? Should I say something?_ '

"So," Chloe suddenly began, "another ex-girlfriend?"

Totally taken aback by this question, Max quickly gulped down the food in her mouth. "Who? Rachel? Girlfriend? Pft, I wish." Realizing that this answer wouldn't bring her any points with Chloe, Max coughed and continued in order to reach safe ground. "I-I mean no. Rachel's just a friend. She's…uhm…how should I say…pretty aloof when it comes to intimacy. At least, nobody has ever seen her with a boy- or girlfriend."

"You're shitting me, right? You tell me that this chick never banged anyone at this school?"

"Jeez, Chlo, I don't know. Why do you even care?" now Max blurted out, furiously.

Chloe leaned in very closely. "I don't fucking trust her, that's all."

"But why? Rachel's cool, everybody likes her."

"See, and that's the fucking problem! She manipulates people. Believe me, Maxi, she's hiding something."

"Okay, so you're a bit paranoid and jealous."

"Just hella cautious when it comes to people like her. Life experience, y'know?" Then, Chloe took Max's hand softly and looked into her eyes deeply. "Max, I don't wanna see you get hurt. You're a nice girl and…" She sighed. "You just don't deserve to get hurt, got it?"

"Thanks for your worries, Chlo! But Rachel's definitely not like that. And how do you even know people like her? I mean, were there a lot of High Society kids in your former school?"

Chloe leaned back, another impish smirk on her lips. "I just love it when people underestimate me!" She paused for a while to let her comment settle in. "Y'know, Maximus, this isn't the first private school with oh-so-privileged assholes I'm a student at. Everyone thinks, just because I have this punk style and attitude, that I'm a deadbeat. Well, I'm not. I'm a science-nerd. Straight-A. On a full ride since Junior High. I get some dough from the state for food, clothes 'n' shit, but that's not nearly enough to pay tuition for such shitholes."

Max rested her head on both hands and looked at the blue-haired punk deeply with a smile. "You're so strange, Chlo."

"How so?"

"You're like Ying and Yang. Black and white. Fire and ice. But all in one person. On one side you seem to don't give a fuck about everything and even hate these oh-so-privileged assholes. But on the other side you care about others, and visit private schools where assholes are abound. You're a mystery."

"Well, looks like I'm a box of chocolates…you never know what you're gonna get!"

' _I already know that you're sweet!_ ' Max thought, but didn't say it out loud. Nevertheless, she instantly blushed has her fantasy was about to go rampage.

"So…uhm…you wanna hang out a bit more. I-I mean it's Sunday and my schedule's hella empty."

Max's gaze dropped and she sighed out loud as she recalled that her schedule wasn't empty at all. "Sorry, Chlo, but I still have to write a shitload of reports and need to organize a meeting with the faculty for Friday." She exhaled again. "I fucking hate this job!"

"Okay, then maybe I could keep you some company…y'know, lighten up the mood, help you out 'n' stuff."

' _I know exactly how you could lighten up my mood!_ '

"Thanks, Chlo, b-but you'd distract me too easily and Wells would bust my ass if I don't file in my reports in time."

' _And I'd throw you on my desk and…goddammit, Max, why are you such a horndog all of a sudden? Shit, I need to go now before things get out of hand!'_

As her freckled face blushed even more and the butterflies in her stomach were about to go crazy, Max stood up rapidly. Her breathing was fast and as she was about to walk backwards she almost stumbled over her chair. "S-sorry, Chlo, b-but I really need to go…uhm…we'll see us tomorrow, 'kay?"

Chloe followed Max's clumsy try to leave the cafeteria with an amused smile, giggling every time, the brunette girl almost fell over something.

* * *

A long and deep sigh emerged from Max's mouth as her body entered the hot water. Unlike the most students of Blackwell, Max had the luxury that her parents owned a house near campus, and therefor was still able to live at home.

Like predicted, it took her the rest of the day to finish the reports and prepare the meeting. As she finally arrived at home at around 7 pm, the only thing she wanted was to get rid of her clothes and take a relaxing dip in the bathtub.

' _Wowser! What a day!_ ' Max thought, while she took a deep inhale and closed her eyes. Suddenly, her phone, which was laying on a stool right beside the tub, chimed. She grabbed it and her eyes sparkled as she saw that she received a message from Chloe.

[Chloe]: _yo photogirl! whatcha doing?_

[Max]: _Taking a hot bath._

[Chloe]: _u got a tub in ur dorm?!_

[Max]: _No, still living with my folks._

[Chloe]: _really? kudos!_

[Max]: _It has its perks, but sucks sometimes too._

[Chloe]: _can I come over and hop in too?_

Instantly a warm feeling ran through Max's body as her imagination went wild again. Faster as she could think straight again, her fingers had already typed: _It's big enough for two_ , but deleted it right away.

[Chloe]: _not right now. but in general. my last hot bath was millennia ago._

' _Shit, I need to change the topic!_ ' Max thought, almost unable to hold her composure.

[Max]: _Maybe._

[Max]: _So, what you're up to?_

[Chloe]: _just finished my room. want a picture?_

[Max]: _Sure!_

A few minutes later the first picture appeared on Max's screen and showed her how Chloe had decorated her room.

' _Hm, wild and punky. But also a bit artsy. I like it!_ '

[Max]: _Coolcool, Chlo. Kinda like your style!_

[Chloe]: _thx! got some more!_

A new bunch of photos was send on the brunette girl's phone. With her well trained eye for photography, Max looked on every detail. From one moment to another she blushed beet-red and her breathing became shallow as her gaze caught Chloe's reflection in a mirror, which brought back this intense warm feeling, but this time it was overwhelming.

' _W-wowser! Sh-she's just wearing a purple panty a-and a lose tank top…without a bra!_ '

[Chloe]: _so, whatcha thinking?_

Max gulped and zoomed in on that special part of the photo, ignoring Chloe's new message. The warm feeling turned into a hot throbbing between her legs.

[Chloe]: _max? u still there?_

' _Shit, I can't hold back anymore! I…I need to do it!_ '

While she held the phone in one hand, her other one dipped into the water and wandered softly over her body, beginning from her small breasts deeper down over her stomach, before making a slight detour over her thighs and finally reaching her center. With slow movements she started to massage her nether region, letting out a loud moan.

' _Fuuuck! It's been ages since I did it. A release is definitely overdue!_ '

[Chloe]: _maaax? hello? my taste that bad?_

With her thumb, Max tried to write a quick reply.

[Max]: _ssrry clo. neeed to gio._

[Chloe]: _ok. see ya 2morrow._

[Chloe]: _p.s. dude, you should turn off autocorrect_

[Max]: _kk_

As soon as she'd sent the last message, Max fully focused on that picture and let her fantasy finally go crazy. "Oh yes, Chloe! Y-you're so awesome!" she moaned and spread her legs apart.

With every passing second her groaning intensified. The pure feelings of lust that were released with every brush over her sensitive spot increased, until they turned into hot and intense waves of pleasure, that made the small girl groan out loud.

After the last wave had passed, Max's body went limp, so that she barely managed to keep her phone in her hand and not drop it on the floor, or worse, into the tub. "Wow…ser!" she gasped between her heavy breathing, while her heart raced and she felt like she'd run a few miles.

' _Okay, that was absolutely awesome! And necessary! Damn, I really need to do this more often from now on or I'll wet myself and explode only by seeing Chloe. But next time I have to tune it down or else I'll have another awkward conversation with my parents. Thank dog, my mom has to do the late shift and my dad's on business travel._ '

Max waited until she'd calmed down enough and left the tub, tried herself off, put on her pajamas and went straight to bed.

Despite her exhaustion, she wasn't able to fall asleep, her thoughts still swirling around Chloe.

' _I just can't get her out of my head. She seems to be so…special, but I can't put a finger on it. Poor Chloe, she never really had a family…or a real home. Hopefully, I can help her settle in here in no time. And maybe…just maybe…I can be more to her than just a friend!_ '

* * *

A dark room with dimly light. Two men are standing in front of a big monitor. One of them dressed in a suit, the other one wore a military uniform.

The screen came to live and showed the face of an older man with grey hair, also dressed in a suit.

" _Colonel, report!"_ it chimed from the speakers.

The man with the military attire straightened and put his hands behind his back. "Sir, we've set a base of operation at the old shipyard and have the subject under 24/7 surveillance."

" _Are we sure it's her?"_

"Yes, Mr. Wilcock." said the man in the suit, earning an agitated glare from the Colonel.

"No," he interrupted and shifted his gaze at the screen again, "Though the name and description fits, we were unable to read any omega-waves, so far."

"It is her!" the suited man blurted out. "Let's get this over with, before the whole town finds out what's going on."

"Sir, this isn't just a small mountain village in some fucked up third-world country that nobody gives a damn about. This is a town with a prestigious private school on American soil. If we fuck this up, not only the whole operation, but the whole Organization is threatened to be exposed to the public."

" _Colonel Sanders is right, Mr. Prescott. We need a 100 percent confirmation. But…the Board grows impatient. They want results. Colonel, you have two days to get me a positive ID on the subject."_

"Yes, Sir!"

" _But, positive ID or not, we need to wrap this up and get her. That's why I'll send you one of our Operatives, Mr. Stransky."_

Colonel Sanders' expression became cold. "Stransky? As in Viktor Stransky?"

" _Yes, Colonel. You know him?"_

"He has some kind of reputation in the upper ranks of the military. And it is not positive. Sir, this man is a killer. A cold-blooded son of a bitch. A psychopath. I don't recommend using him for this operation. We need a professional, not an assassin."

" _This is neither up to you nor me. The Board decided this."_

"I agree with the Board. A firm hand is needed to end this quickly." Sean Prescott threw in, and again, Sanders looked at him from the corners of his eyes with a clenched jaw.

"With all due respect, Sir, but if this is how the Organization does its operations now, then this will be my last mission!"

" _Colonel, the Board calls the shots…"_

"No," Sanders shouted, "They hire me to plan and run their missions, but if they think they can do a better job, I'm not needed anymore."

The old man on the screen stayed silent for a while, but not because he was intimidated by the Colonel's outburst. He just weighed his next words.

" _Alright, Colonel, I take this as your resignation then. This will be your last mission. Nevertheless, I'll join and supervise the operation in two days. Mr. Prescott, as the Board's supervisor, you'll stay in the background and let us do our job. Just take care that the authorities won't interfere."_

"Yes, Mr. Wilcock."

" _Good! The next meeting will be in 24 hours. Good bye, gentlemen."_

The monitor turns black again, leaving the Colonel and Mr. Prescott in the dimly light.

Suddenly, Sanders grabbed Sean Prescott by the collar of his jacket and pressed him against the concrete wall.

"Listen closely, you slimy bastard, if you undermine my authority EVER again, I'm gonna kill you!"

"You wouldn't dare!" snipped Prescott back, but his eyes widened in fear as the cold steel of Colonel Sanders' Colt 1911 was pressed against his chin.

"Tempt me, Prescott, and find out," the Colonel hissed, "I've been running Black-Ops all around the world for over 20 years now. I know how to make an unwanted body disappear."

Petrified by this threat, Sean Prescott didn't move a limb. His whole body was shaking. With a scoff, the Colonel let go of Prescott and holstered his gun again.

"Stay out of my way Prescott or you'll regret it!" said Sanders and left the room, already focused on his mission again: seizing a young girl with potential powers far beyond any imagination.


	3. Chapter 2: A Good Heart

**Chapter 2: A Good Heart**

3rd September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon

Prescott dormitories, Blackwell Academy

An impish smile appeared on her face as Chloe read Max's last messages.

"You're welcome, Maximus!" she spoke to herself quietly, "Hope you have fun, you little horndog!"

The blue-haired girl threw the phone on her bed and took a look around her room. The white walls were mainly covered with band posters, graffiti and sketches. While the graffiti showed mostly skulls, ravens and some sayings, the sketches were more sci-fi: various types of spaceships, stars and far-away planets with weird vegetation.

' _I don't know where I get this stuff from. It just pops up in my head, mostly when I'm asleep. Maybe my head tries to tell me that I should bail this fucking planet and move to another world. A world where I actually fit in. It'd be great, though, if Maxi bails with me.'_

' _But enough with this melancholically bullshit. What should I do next? Hmm? Max is hunting the big-O right now, maybe I should too?'_

' _Nah, I'm so not in the mood. But a shower would be great, 'cause I'm all sweaty and stink like a dead animal on the Interstate in summer.'_

With this decision, Chloe grabbed her shower supplies and made her way to the shower room, finding it completely empty.

' _Good. I don't need anyone to get on my crack tonight.'_

She stripped off her panties and tank top, and stepped into the booth. As the hot water ran over her body she leaned herself against the wall and let out a big sigh.

' _Gosh, this feels hella good! So chillaxing. Maybe I should…'_

Her hand wandered down her body, very slowly and cautiously. Chloe closed her eyes and focused on the slight tickling feeling as her fingers softly brushed over her skin, until they met a small bump on the side of her belly.

Instantly, the bluenette opened her eyes again, her mood suddenly gone and replaced by another wave of negative thoughts. Her fist hits the wall as her face grimaced in anger. She closed her eyes once more and inhaled deeply. With every breath she calmed down more and more.

Eventually, she took her soap and shampoo, and began to do what she'd originally planned.

After the shower, Chloe stepped in front of a sink and looked at her naked body in the mirror. Tiny scars were scattered all over it. Scars that reminded her of a dark past. A past she'd like to forget, but wasn't able to do so.

The door to the shower room was opened and Victoria entered. She positioned herself in front of the door and leaned against it with crossed arms, like she wanted to make sure that nobody got in or out. The blonde stared at Chloe, her eyes piercing daggers. But the punk-girl didn't even bother giving her one tiny glimpse. She just took her toothbrush and began to clean her teeth.

"You should at least wear a towel, y'know?" Victoria said, breaking the silence. And again, all she received was ignorance. "Hey! I'm talking to you!"

"Then just talk, it's not like I can overhear your squeaking voice." Chloe answered nonchalantly with a shrug after she'd spit out the foam.

Victoria frowned in anger, but tried to stay calm for the moment. "I want you to stay away from Maxine!"

"Geez, lemme think 'bout it…uhm, no. Any other wishes, oh mighty Queen-Bee?" the punk replied cynically.

Not satisfied and completely offended by the answer, Victoria walked over to Chloe with angry steps until she was face to face with her opponent.

"Listen, bitch," she hissed, "Maxine doesn't need such a fuck-up like you in her life. She deserves better!"

"Yes, she deserves better. Someone better than you!" Chloe shot back, making Victoria to take a few steps back. "Have you ever thought about what you've done to her?"

"I-I…" the blonde tried to answer, but was cut off immediately.

"You broke her heart! She loved, and probably still loves you, but you stupid asshole threw her away like a used sex toy! Do you even know that she's still shedding tears because of you?"

Victoria stayed silent. Max told Chloe that she had always been good at hiding her emotions, but not right now. Tears rolled down the blonde's cheeks, dripping on her silk pajama.

"I don't know why you chose this stupid Vortex Club over her," Chloe continued in a calm tone and grabbed her stuff, "But I know you blew it with her. And, though I don't give a shit about you or your opinion, I'm gonna promise you that I'd never do something like this to her." She walked past the crying blonde and opened the door, glimpsing one last time over her shoulder. "One last advice, Icky Vicky, don't ever judge a book by its cover! It's a bad habit and made me think that you're a heartless bitch. But now I see that you're just plain stupid…but at least you have a heart."

Before Chloe had closed the door again, she heard how Victoria's crying intensified. She knew that she'd just dropped a giant hammer on her. But in her eyes, it had been necessary. Maybe this was everything Victoria ever needed to become a better person. Maybe.

' _Well, hope dies at the very end…or something.'_ she thought and made her way back to her room, still completely naked. In the hallway she passed one of Victoria's cronies, a black-haired girl named Courtney, who was staring at the nude punk girl with her mouth agape.

"What?! Never seen a naked girl before?" Chloe said plainly, grinning internally. She never had a problem showing her body to other people. In the orphanage, privacy had been a rare luxury. Group showers, group bedrooms, group bathrooms. Private moments were only possible in the toilet stalls or if you found a quiet spot, like an old, dark, abandoned closet under the stairs.

Chloe hated the darkness. That's why she'd decorated her dorm room with a bunch of light strings, which she turned on as soon as was back in her room.

' _Okay, Price, you know the drill. Let's prepare for the night.'_

She closed the door, locked it and hooked in the door chain she'd installed on her own. Then she locked the windows and closed the curtains. After the bluenette girl made sure that everything was closed shut, she put on her pajama shorts and top.

The bed creaked as she lied down and wrapped her body into the sheets. For what felt like hours, Chloe stared at the ceiling, sleep completely avoiding her. With every passing second her breathing and heartrate increased. Panic began to emerge from deep within. She closed her eyes and tried to calm down again.

' _Calm down, Chloe, don't panic! It's a new place and you're sleeping alone. But there's no one here who wants to hurt you. Nobody's gonna come in here. You're safe! It's normal to feel a bit edgy in such situations. Just remember Steph's words: Everything needs time to heal. Everything…needs…time…to…'_

First tears rolled down her cheeks. Chloe turned her head, took the wallet from her nightstand and pulled out a photo of a brunette woman, wearing a beanie.

"I miss you so much! Steph…I need you!" she whimpered, rolled into a ball and cried hard, sobbing so loud it could be heard throughout the dormitories, until exhaustion finally sent her into a restless slumber.

* * *

5th August 2016, Portland, Oregon

Sunrise Orphanage

Darkness. It's natural to be afraid of the dark, because absence of light means uncertainty and loneliness.

Chloe was afraid of the darkness. But her reasons to fear the night were certainty and the fact that, even if she wouldn't sleep with 30 other girls in one room, she'd probably not stay alone.

She wasn't asleep. Nobody was. Because every girl knew that _they_ would come. _They_ came every night. That was one certainty. And every night _they_ took one of them. Sometimes even more. If you stayed alone, you were considered lucky for that day. But one day, this luck would run out eventually. That was another certainty.

Like the others, the 17-year-old strawberry-blonde girl lied in her bed and listened into the darkness. Every time a board creaked or the wind howled through the old building she heard the gasping, whimpering and crying. It was a constant, cruel melody that was present each and every night.

Steps could be heard outside, closing in on the bedroom. Again, the melody of desperation chimed through the room. This time even prayers were included, because everyone knew who had the nightshift today.

Most of the tormentors were satisfied if they just saw their victims naked and jerked off to the sight. Some were worse and wanted to be touched. But there was one of them who always wanted more. He wasn't satisfied by just looking at or getting touched by his chosen one. He wanted to take them entirely; especially their virginity. His name was Jefferson; Pater Mark Jefferson. By day a caring Pater who seemed to be your best buddy, but by night he became a monster.

So far, Chloe resisted them all. Yes, they've taken her multiple times. Yes, they already saw her naked and satisfied themselves in front of her. But she never let them touch her. They tried it; wanted to force her; wanted to break her; but Chloe resisted nonetheless. This resistance came with a price. Cuts, bruises and black eyes were few of them. Her young body was already a journal of torture and abuse, but nobody would believe her that the staff of the orphanage did this to her. No. Chloe was given the reputation of a loner and troublemaker, who was constantly fighting with the other kids and had the tendency to hurt herself. A cheap lie, but still, Chloe would keep on resisting or die trying.

The door to the bedroom was opened, the sound chiming throughout the room like the trumpets of Armageddon. Like the footsteps, the whimpering grew louder.

Somehow, Chloe knew that it was her turn tonight; she knew that Jefferson would try it again. He made it some sort of sick hobby to hunt for Chloe's virginity. For him, the strawberry-blonde girl was a big trophy; a masterpiece, waiting to be finished. And lately, he'd grown impatient. The punishments for her resistance became worse.

The steps came closer and closer. Chloe shut her eyes tightly and clawed with her hands deeply into the sheets. She'd have loved to run away, but to what avail? There was no escape; no running away. She was trapped with the others. Laying low was the only chance to avoid the torment for another night.

Suddenly her shoulder was grabbed hurtfully. Tears were welling up in the corner of her eyes and flowed onto the pillow.

"Come with me, Chloe!" the hateful, whispering voice of Jefferson chimed in her ear.

"Fuck you!" she replied in a quiet, trembling tone.

The grip on her shoulder tightened, making the blonde gasp in pain. "If you don't get up right now, I'm gonna take that little cunt you care about so much!" Jefferson hissed angrily.

Her eyes opened rapidly as realization struck her; the realization that her times of resistance were about to end. Jefferson knew that, despite the psychological and physical punishments he had given her, Chloe would never have faltered. But now he found a weak spot: her good heart.

Normally, Chloe always kept to herself; pushed other people away in order to don't give the staff any leverage against her. None of the girls; not even the bitchiest of them; deserved to suffer for her rebellion.

A few weeks ago, however, a new little, red-haired girl came into the orphanage. Her name was Stacy and she'd just turned 12. The first time she was taken, she returned to her bed completely devastated. Everybody knew that the first time was the worst one. Her sobs were so loud that nobody was able to sleep. Some girls even threatened to beat her up. That night Chloe made a choice. The blonde girl stood up, walked over to the younger girl's bed, laid down beside her and embraced the small girl tightly, soothing and crying with her until Chloe's comforting presence had calmed her down enough to finally fall asleep.

From this night on, Chloe became the younger girl's protector. Whenever they wanted to take her she stepped in, took the heat. She knew that one day they would use it to their advantage. But Chloe didn't care. She made that decision. Even to protect one innocent life in this hellhole was worth giving up everything.

Slowly, Chloe lifted herself up. She hadn't even set one foot on the cold floor as Jefferson ripped her out of the bed and shoved her violently towards the door. She heard Stacy's brittle voice whispering her name. The door closed shut behind her and everything she could do was to keep on walking in the dark. More tears rolled down her cheeks as she mentally prepared herself for the horrible things that were about to happen in the room she was about to step in.

With another violent squeeze on her shoulder, Jefferson made Chloe stop in the middle of his office. There she stood, embracing her body, gaze dropped, waiting for the torment to begin.

The old, heavy wooden door closed shut and was locked with a loud click. Jefferson passed the young girl and took a seat at his desk.

"Take off your clothes!" he commanded, sitting amused in his cozy chair like a king, who just ordered his jester to tell a bad joke.

How Chloe hated him; hated his stupid face with its stupid hipster-style and those stupid glasses. Her hands were clawing into her arms, because she needed some hold, and her gaze was still fixed on the ground as she shook her head. She simply didn't want to give in so easily.

Furiously Pater Jefferson jumped up, walked over to Chloe and slapped the young girl right into her face with full force, making her stumble a few steps. Without wasting any time, Jefferson grabbed Chloe by her tank top and pulled her up again. The fabric ripped, revealing the blonde's breasts.

"Do you want me to get your little friend and let you watch how I fuck her instead, huh?" he hissed in her face.

This time, Chloe looked directly into his eyes. "If you touch her, I'm gonna kill you!"

Silence occurred for a moment as both stared at each other, until Jefferson huffed in amusement, loosened the grip on Chloe and took a few steps back, now glancing at the blonde's exposed chest with a wry smirk.

"We both know that you won't do shit." he said plainly, stretched out his arm and started to touch Chloe's body.

The blonde girl flinched upon this unwanted touch. Her hands clenched into fists and a new bunch of tears streamed down her face. She wanted to scream, she wanted to hit him. But she mustn't if she wanted to save Stacy from this bastard. She just closed her eyes shut and wished for this night to be over.

"Now I understand why you always played hard-to-get. Your skin is so soft…" His hand wandered over her belly and then upwards. He began to knead her breasts, then leaned in and kissed her nipples. "Oh Chloe…you're gifted with this body," he spoke between the kisses. "Too bad we had to punish you so much."

Then he broke the contact, grabbed the girl by her neck and tossed her against the desk. Various objects fell to the ground as Chloe's upper body hit the desktop, making her groan in pain. She came to a rest in a bend over position.

"Well, I think we should get started, because…" he came closer again and stripped off her pajama shorts. "I'm planning to play with you the whole night."

Chloe heard how Jefferson opened the zipper of his pants. She knew that this was it; that she'd lost the war; that her body was about to be spotted by this pig.

"Do me a favor, Chloe," Jefferson whispered in her ear, "Scream for me! Let everyone know that I finally broke you!"

First sobs escaped her mouth as she lost her composure. She wanted to stay strong; wanted to give him no satisfaction in her suffering, but it was a lost cause. Dark spots suddenly danced in her sight and Chloe realized that her mind was about to shut down; she welcomed it and let the comforting darkness surround her.


	4. Chapter 3: Hurtful Memories

**Chapter 3: Hurtful Memories**

4th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon

Caulfield's household

Max groaned as her phone chimed and woke her up from an almost sleepless night.

' _Ugh, what a shitty night! Why did Victoria bust my phone with hundreds of texts in the middle of the night, begging me for forgiveness? Damn, I think it's time to have a final talk with her about this shit.'_

She crawled out of bed and walked with wavering steps into the bathroom.

' _Shit, I look like a complete mess!'_ Max thought as she looked at her freckled face and red-cried, puffy eyes in the mirror. Then, she splashed some water into her face to wash away the drowsiness, brushed her teeth, and put on her common clothes.

' _Mom's probably still asleep. Looks like I have to get my breakfast from the cafeteria today. Maybe I'll meet Chloe, that would at least be a nice start for an already shitty school day!'_

With a long sigh, Max grabbed her old cam bag and headed for Blackwell.

* * *

Every morning during school days the Blackwell cafeteria was almost overrun by students, all of them on the hunt for a much needed coffee and some breakfast.

As Max entered the cafeteria and saw the masses, she just sighed and got in line. Her stomach was already rumbling and she knew, if somebody would give her some shit right now, she would go all ballistic.

"Hey, Max!"

Max turned around and looked at an auburn-haired, tall girl. "Morning, Dana!" she said plainly, followed by a yawn.

"Tough night?"

"Kinda. Vicky bombed my phone with texts in the middle of the night."

Dana Ward arched one eyebrow. "Really?! I thought you two were done?"

"We are, but…" Max responded with a slight shrug and sighed deeply. "I need to talk with her about it. Have you seen her?"

"Who? Victoria? No. Actually, I haven't seen her at all today and I'm not sad about it. Maybe you should ask one of her minions."

"Yay…" was Max's unmotivated, sarcastic answer.

Suddenly, a wide smirk appeared on Dana's lips as she gave the smaller girl a soft push. "Say, Max, Rach told me that you're head over heels into the new girl."

Max's eyes widened in surprise and her heart began to race.

' _Shit, have I been that obvious? Obviously yes, dummy!'_

"Wh-what?!"

"C'mon, girl, don't lie to me!" the auburn-haired girl singsong-ed.

' _Damn you, Rachel!'_

"Ugh, yes. But please don't tell anyone else, especially not Chloe!"

"Chloe, huh? So, that's her name. Sounds cute."

"Cute?" Max scoffed, "She doesn't do cute. She's more like a sexy Red Sonja, riding a Panzer-Tank…but with blue hair."

"O! M! G! Our little Max is into bad girls now. How kinky!"

Max rolled with her eyes while she blushed beet-red. "Better into bad girls than into self-centered jocks."

"Touché!"

Finally, they both reached the counter with the food. Max took two bagels, some donuts and a cup of coffee. She was about to leave as Dana grabbed her hand and dragged her aside.

"Yo, don't you wanna sit down for a bit?"

"Nah, I need to find Vicky and then check my mails 'n' stuff."

"Dude, you really need to slow things down and chill a bit! School year's just started."

"I'll try, okay! But…"

Suddenly, Dana squeezed Max's small hand a bit harder, gazing at her in a mixture of worry and seriousness. "Listen, Max, I didn't wanna tell you, 'cause I was unsure about your feelings for Chloe. But now I see that you mean business and…" She let out a deep sigh, dropping her gaze for a moment. "Max, I heard her crying. Damn, the whole dorm must've heard her."

"Who?"

"Chloe. I don't know if anyone was able to sleep until she'd stopped."

"That's…just horrible. Didn't anybody try to comfort her?"

"Max, it's the girl's dorm. Drama-central. The showers are spilling tears. It's nothing new. But…I never heard someone crying like this before." Her look into Max's eyes intensified. "Max, what I wanna say is, that she's probably carrying more load than it seems."

"So?" the smaller girl hissed back, her expression suddenly angrily. This wasn't the first time she had to defend the person that she had feelings for against other's prejudice. Sadly, last time she ignored the warnings and paid the price, and recalling this made her even more furious. "Maybe she just needs someone to carry this load with her? And I'm more than willing to do so. And I don't need your or Rachel's approval for that!"

With these words said, Max turned around and stomped out of the cafeteria, completely ignoring Dana's spoken apologies. She gulped down the coffee in one draw, threw the empty cup into a garbage bin and stuffed the food into her bag.

' _Great, first Victoria doesn't let me sleep and then Dana goes all wannabe-protector on me, 'cause Chloe cried at night. Damn, after I broke up with Vicky I bawled for days and nobody gave a fuck. It was just "poor Max" here and "you'll get over her" there. Rachel was the only one who tried to comfort me.'_

Max stopped in her angry tracks as she saw Courtney, sitting in the hallway, already making some advertisement for the Vortex Club.

"Hey Courtney, have you seen Victoria?" the brunette girl spoke with agitation.

More annoyed than offended, the black-haired girl just shrugged. "Haven't seen her since yesterday. But if you see your punk-dyke, you can tell her that she should cover her ugly body, before strolling through the dorm."

Hearing more negative things about her crush, something snapped inside of Max. She took hold of Courtney's collar and lifted her from the chair.

"At least she doesn't look like a fucking scarecrow! Now get off my crack and crawl back into someone else's ass!", she yelled into her face and let her fall back onto her chair, before continuing her tour of rage to the Prescott Dormitories.

Hot tears of anger were now flowing down Max's reddened face as she recalled some of the fond memories she had of Victoria. Memories of a time they both were in deep love; a time without Blackwell; without a Vortex Club.

* * *

14th August 2014, Seattle, Washington

The Chase's apartment

Two young bodies, entangled in a lustful dance. Their moans getting louder with every movement until they grew into soft screams of relief and pleasure.

For some moments the room was filled with silence, only broken by some heavy breathing and the sound of soft kisses.

"I love you, Vicky!" the 14-year-old Max whispered softly.

"I love you, too, Maxine!" was the now 15-year-old Victoria's also whispered answer, followed by some more slight kissing.

Both girls now turned onto their backs, still completely out of breath from their game of love.

"So…did you like your present?" Max asked with an impish smile, entwining her fingers with Victoria's.

"Best. Present. Ever!" the blonde with the messy pixie-cut gave back and leaned in for another, but now more intense kiss.

"I'm so glad that your folks let us leave this boring soiree sooner."

Instantly, Victoria's face darkened, the previous good mood suddenly gone. "Yeah. I can't wait to bail for Blackwell."

Silence occurred once more, broken by Max's soft voice a few minutes later. "Vicky?"

"Hmm?"

"Is it the right thing to go to Blackwell? I-I mean it's a good school with a photography program, but…I don't know…I just have a bad feeling about this."

"Maxine, I finally wanna have my parents off our backs!" Victoria turned to Max, brushing over her freckled cheek. "I don't wanna hide anymore. I wanna show the world who I really am and what a stunning girlfriend I have!"

This comment painted a shyly smile on Max's face. "Thanks, Vicky! Y-you're awesome, too, y'know?"

Once again, Victoria leaned in for a long kiss.

"Say," the blonde spoke after the kiss, "Wanna watch one of my new Animes?"

"Definitely!" Max answered with a grin.

Victoria crawled out of bed and began to rummaged through her movie collection. "Smut or gore?"

Resting her head on her arm, Max stared at her naked girlfriend with a still lustful gaze. "I already had smut, so how about some gore?"

The blonde picked one of the movies plus her High-End-Laptop, and returned to bed, where both of them cuddled themselves under the blanked.

Although she didn't know the running flick and it wasn't that boring, Max wasn't able to avert her gaze from Victoria. And as much as the blonde tried to hide it, she was doing the same from the corner of her eyes.

Soon, both of them couldn't hold back anymore and looked at each other intensively. A series of hot kisses followed, which would've lead to more, if the voices of Victoria's parents hadn't told the girls that they weren't alone anymore.

"Maybe we should have some more smut as soon as my parents are asleep?" Victoria whispered into Max's ear.

"Definitely!" the brunette girl replied softly, almost completely lost in the eyes of her loved one. "I love you!"

"I love you, too!" the slight older girl responded and placed another kiss on her girlfriend's lips, "Forever!"

* * *

24th September 2016, Arcadia Bay, Oregon

Blackwell Academy

The school campus was completely silent. Only a few lanterns interrupted the omnipresent darkness. The quiet scenery was only disturbed by the two persons who snuck through the night. One of them was blindfolded and lead by the second one.

"Vicky, where are you taking me?" the brunette girl whispered, almost tripping over a root from a nearby tree.

"Ssh, Maxine! It's a surprise, okay?" was the blonde's answer. She took a look around and walked the last few yards in a fast pace until they reached the backdoor to the swimming pool.

The door opened with a loud click and both girls entered the building, a wave of an intense chlorine smell engulfing them.

"The swimming pool? Are you crazy?! We're not supposed to be here. How did we get in?" Max said half-panicky, still blindfolded.

"Chill, Maxine," Victoria spoke with a soft voice, brushing with her hand over her girlfriend's face, "I asked Zack for a favor and he took care that the door stayed unlocked. Besides, we're not the first students who would take a midnight swim." She leaned in and gave Max a soft kiss. "I fucked up a lot, Maxine and it's time to make up for it."

"Vicky…" Max spoke quietly, her body tense from nervousness.

"Do you trust me?" the blonde whispered, which was answered with gulp and a frantically nodding.

Slowly, Victoria began to undress Max. First her Hoodie, then her shoes and jeans, followed by the brunette's pink shirt. Still without any sight, Max experienced everyone of Victoria's touches very intense. Her breathing was shallow and her heart raced. And it got even worse as Victoria whispered in her ear with a tantalizing voice.

"What do you think, Maxine, should we just skip our clothes, skinny-dip and take a swim with a big happy-end, hmm?"

"Y-yeah!" was the smaller girl's exhaled answer and as Victoria stripped off her bra, she bit her lower lip and moaned softly.

Victoria leaned in and pressed her lips onto Max's for a long and hot kiss, before she spoke into her ear again. "Now it's your turn to get me naked!" Max was about to take off the fabric that was covering her eyes, but was stopped right away by the soft touch of Victoria's hands. "Uh-uh! You don't need those."

Leading Max's small hands, Victoria let her draw gentle lines all over her entire body, until they reached the bottom of the blondes cashmere-sweater, ready to pull it up.

"Hahaha, look at those tiny titties!" a male voice, unexpectedly, chimed through the whole building, accompanied by laughter, snickering and other hurtful comments. Max gasp in surprise, withdrew her hands from Victoria's sweater and covered her breasts with one arm, while she ripped off the blindfold with her other hand.

Panicky she looked around and saw that the whole Vortex Club was flooding into the pool area. Max stood there, only dressed in her white panties. She felt weak, embarrassed, vulnerable. Her whole body was trembling and all she wanted to do was to run away. But shame and panic let her stay in place. Her only hope now was Victoria.

"What the fuck are you guys doing here?" the blonde yelled at her friends.

Taylor Christensen, clearly drunk, rolled with her eyes. "Looking what you were up to. And as I see, lot worse than I thought."

"Well, bad for you, Taylor. Now fuck off!"

"C'mon, Vic," Courtney spoke, while smoking a joint, reaching it to Victoria, "Arcadia Bay's so boring. Let's party and get high! You can drag Miss Flatchest here along, if you want."

Ignoring Courtney's offered joint, Victoria exhaled deeply, pinching the bridge of her nose and weighed her choices as she turned to Max again.

"Maxine, you wanna…"

SLAP!

From one moment to another, the noise of the partying students abated completely. Holding her reddening cheek, the blonde looked into a pair of welled up, hurt and anger radiating blue doe-eyes.

"Maxine…I-I didn't know…" Victoria stammered, but was cut off by Max instantly.

Tears were flowing down the smaller girl's freckled face in a constant stream, and her voice was trembling. "They insulted and made fun of me…about my body, and you…you just stand there and do nothing." She sniffed and a sob escaped her mouth, her voice getting weaker. "I don't know what hurt more, their words or your silence. I can't do this anymore…I just can't." For a short moment her sight got determined. "You have to decide: me…or them."

"B-but…"

"Until 8 am I want your answer or…or…" Max's face grimaced as she wasn't able to finish the sentence. She grabbed her clothes and ran out of the swimming pool, her fading sobs chiming through the building until she was gone.

"What. A. Drama-Queen.", Taylor commented dryly.

"Such a joy-kill!"

"Stupid hipster!"

"Ugly bitch!"

Victoria heard the mean comments, and they hurt her, because they were against the only person that ever meant something to her. But once more, she stayed silent. Feeling empty and dull. She knew what she should do right now. She should follow her girlfriend and comfort her; apologize for what she did. But she lacked the courage. Victoria Chase was too scared to look into the eyes of the girl she just hurt so badly.

A first tear dripped onto her expensive cashmere sweater as she ignored all the others and went straight for the exit. But before she's able to leave the building, Rachel Amber blocked her way, standing in the doorframe with crossed arms. Her furious eyes gazed at Victoria chidingly.

"I hope you're finally satisfied!" the blonde girl with the feather-earring said, earning a hatefully glimpse.

"Get out of my fucking way, Amber! Or are you enjoying yourself, seeing me like this?"

"I'd love to say yes, but seeing Max in pain for this doesn't give me any pleasure. Though I'm glad that she's finally drawing a line."

"Then what do you want?"

"Giving you something to think about. What do you want in your life, Victoria? If you're searching for love, then follow Max. Comfort her. Hold her. And, by all there's left in the universe, hold on to her! But if you're looking for fame, then just be fair and let her go. She deserves better than a life in uncertainty, not knowing if the girl she loves is gonna bail on her from one day to another." Rachel stepped aside and let Victoria walk past her, only to grab her by her arm in order to stop her once again. "Victoria, I never wanted to be your enemy. So, please, for Max's sake, take my advise seriously!"

Without another glimpse or another word, Victoria ripped her arm from Rachel's grasp and left, heading for the dorms.

* * *

25th September 2016, Arcadia Bay, Oregon

Blackwell Academy

Slowly, she opened her eyes, the bright morning light blinding her. Victoria groaned and covered her face as a painful sting went through her head.

With drowsy movements the blonde tried to find the phone on her nightstand. An empty wine bottle fell from the small table and hit the ground with a clinging sound, making Victoria curse under her breath. Finally, she managed to find the wanted object, took the phone from the nightstand and glimpsed at the unlocked display.

"No!" she gasped and jumped up as she realized that she hadn't send the message for Max, which she'd written on the whole night. And as she recognized that it was already past 11 am, Victoria grabbed her jacket. But before she was able to leave, her foot hit an object that was laying in front of the door.

It was an envelope with her name on it, written in Max's handwriting.

Without wasting another second she ripped it open. Took out, unfolded and read the containing letter.

 _Dear Victoria,_

 _it is now 9 am and, though I thought about those words the whole night, I hoped from the depth of my heart that I'd never have to write them down._

 _But it seems like this hope was in vain. You made a final decision by staying silent again, and I'm respecting it, though I'll never understand it._

 _Maybe this is the best for both of us. Probably I've never been the perfect girlfriend for you. I don't know. But I know that I don't want to dictate you a life that you're not comfortable with._

 _You said to me once that you wanted to go to Blackwell so that you could show the world who you really are. Maybe it was just my wishful thinking that the real Victoria would be an attractive photo-nerd with a hang for shy photo-geeks._

 _Anyway, I just hope that, one day, you'll find the real Victoria. A Victoria that will be a successful photographer. A Victoria that finally hasn't to hide anymore._

 _I know this sounds like a stupid cliché, but we still can be friends. Maybe not right away, but surely after some time has passed._

 _Damn, now I don't even know how to end such a letter. Goodbye? Farewell? Later?_

 _Maybe I just stick with a simple: See you around!_

 _Max_

* * *

4th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon

Blackwell Academy

Small droplets hit the now one year old letter. These weren't the first tears soaking this sheet of paper, smudging the ink on it some more.

' _Not one word,'_ Victoria thought, _'Not one fucking accusing word about how bad I treated her. Not one bit of blame. She just accepted it. Took it with dignity. And I? What did I do? I just hid again, like a coward, because I couldn't bring up the guts to tell her that I love her and that the Vortex Club can go to hell. I'm such a fuck-up!'_

' _And last night I just confessed all this stuff I wanted to tell her a year ago. Without any context. How pathetic is that?'_

A hard and intense knocking disrupted her thoughts and let Victoria jump scare.

"Victoria," Max's voice yelled through the door, "Open this fucking door or I swear to dog that I'll kick it in!"

"Shit!" she muttered under her sigh, mustered every bit of courage, walked to her door with shaky limbs and opened it slowly.

Her gaze fell onto a very angry looking Max with red-cried eyes and clenched fists.

"Maxine…" the blonde whispered.

"Don't _Maxine_ me, Victoria!" Max screamed into her face, "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"I'm…I'm so sorry." Victoria spoke quietly, only to be interrupted again.

"S-sorry?! You're sorry?! Eight months, Victoria! It took me eight fucking months and a fucking therapy to finally get over you. And now…" Max's anger suddenly abated, while her lips began to tremble and new tears were flowing down her cheeks, "Now you're telling me that you still love me. That the Vortex Club means nothing to you. Why now? I was so glad that those wounds were finally healing and you…you ripped them open again. I was crying the whole night, thinking about us; what we had and…"

Max's voice broke. Her hands unclenched and she wrapped the arms around her now shaking body.

Trying to give her some comfort, Victoria wanted to embrace her into a soothing hug, but Max withdrew instantly and gave her ex-girlfriend an angry glare.

"Fuck off, Victoria! Get out of my fucking life!" she hissed and ran out of the building.

Victoria's gaze followed Max until she'd left the floor. Attracted by all this commotion, every girl living on this very floor stood in the hallway, looking at Victoria - the queen-bee, the president of the Vortex Club - with nosy eyes.

She knew that she looked like a complete mess and normally, Victoria would've flipped them all off, pretending that nothing had happened. But she was tired of it. She didn't want to pretend anymore. So, she let those tears flow. For the first time of her life, Victoria Chase cried in front of other people; showed them her true emotions.

To her own surprise, someone wrapped an arm around her body and dragged her back into her room. After the door was closed, she was taken into a tight, soothing hug. And now, Victoria broke down completely. She didn't care who this shoulder belonged to. She was just thankful for it and cried every bit of pain out.

A hand combed through the blonde's short hair, followed by some soothing words. "Let it all out! It helps!"

Straight away, Victoria broke the embrace and backed off as she recognized the other person's voice. "You?! Why? Why are you doing this? Wanna laugh at me? Wanna give me some more shit? Then just do it already!"

Chloe gazed at the blonde for some time without showing any emotion, until a wry smirk formed on her face. "As much as I'd like to slap some sense into your bitchy brain, I won't do it."

"B-but I deserve it."

"No, what you need right now is comfort and time to think. Victoria, if I wanted to, I could give you a lotta shit. But I'm not like that. I don't stomp on people when they're laying on the ground. I know the feelings your going through…if you haven't heard last night. And I bet that no one else around here will give a shit about it. So, last chance for a mushy hug."

And again, Victoria broke down. Her face grimaced. She jumped forward and cried out every bit of emotional pain into Chloe's comforting shoulder.

* * *

Balls of used tissues were scattered all over her desktop. For the last hours, the silence of the small office has been broken by constant sobs and sniffs.

Max didn't know when she'd finally stopped crying or if anyone had heard her. She didn't care about that anyway. Most students of Blackwell already saw her shedding tears the one or other day. May it because of bullying, school stress or just the fact that she had one of her mental breakdowns. Nobody asked, nobody cared. Except maybe Rachel and Dana, but Max didn't want to burden her only friends with her emotional crap.

Resting her head on her arms, Max stared at the wall of the room. She felt empty and without any motivation. She never wanted to go all ballistic on Victoria, but somehow it happened. Somehow all these piled-up feelings of anger and disappointment towards her ex-girlfriend were released in one big blast.

She took a glimpse at her phone and realized that it was almost lunch break. Normally, Max was supposed to be available for students during the whole break, but neither did she want to get up, nor to unlock the door.

' _Fuck this place! I don't wanna do this anymore. Every time some shit happens I'm responsible. Everyone blames me if Wells comes up with another stupid rule. Fuck this shitty job!'_

A sudden knock at the door let the brunette raise her head rapidly. But she stayed put, lacking any motivation to see another person.

It knocked again. "Max, it's me, Rachel." it chimed through the door.

With a sigh, Max stood up and unlocked the door. She hadn't even opened it entirely, as Rachel already rushed inside and took the small brunette into a tight embrace, rocking her softly.

"I just heard what happened. Oh Max, I'm so sorry!" the blonde whispered.

Max didn't know what to say. Rachel had always been at her side; gave her hold; comforted her when she needed it. She was a real friend and Max was so thankful for it. And this fact made her cry in relief.

* * *

Lunch break. For most students it was the very welcoming rest after the first class. Eating lunch, enjoying the warm weather of the beginning fall or just relaxing in your dorm room were a few possibilities, which could be done during this time.

Max would've loved to enjoy this break, too. But sadly, the job as a student council dictated her that she needed to be available for students and teachers during lunch break at least two days a week, and one of them was Monday.

' _Too bad that Rachel had to get back to class so soon. I would've loved to talk with her some more, but…'_ Max thought and buried her face in her hands, letting out a big sigh, _'At least she covered my ass by telling Mr. Peterson that I have women's problems and needed to lay down a bit. She's a true friend, if not even more like a sister.'_

The buzzing of her phone told Max that she'd just received a message. She unlocked it and a wide smile grew on her face as she read the text.

[Chloe]: _yo Maximus! heard you have the shitty shift._

[Chloe]: _gonna bring u some food._

[Chloe]: _and keep u some company._

[Max]: _Can't wait to see you!_

She started the browser of her phone and typed into the search field: _how to make a move on a girl._ But before she was able to hit the search button, the door of the office flew open and a more than furious Nathan Prescott stormed in.

"YOU STUPID CUNT!" he yelled and slammed his hands on the desk, "What's your fucking problem, dyke?"

Unimpressed by the brown-haired boy's outburst, Max just raised her gaze from the phone, arching one eyebrow.

"Well, gee, Nathan. Nice to see you, too. How're you doing? I'm not so good, by the way. Wanna sit down?" she replied cynically.

"Victoria's gonna bust your gay ass for this!"

Hearing her ex-girlfriend's name sent a sudden jolt of anger through the brunette girl's body, making her stand up and yell back at Nathan. "I don't give a rat's ass about her opinion! Besides, she already agreed with this. So, shut the fuck up, sit down, and tell me why you rammed Mrs. Hoyda's car and shoved it against a lantern?"

Intimidated by Max, Nathan sat down, crossed his arms and didn't bother to look at her.

"This bitch parked in my spot."

This surprisingly marginal reason for vandalism and insult let Max open her eyes widely. "You're shitting me, right?" Receiving no answer, the young girl got furious again. "Are you fucking cereal?! There are no designated parking spaces. Neither for students nor the faculty!"

"Wrong, bitch. I own this school, therefor I own the parking lot."

Upon those words, Max just shook her head and scoffed. "You're an idiot, Nathan, and I'm tired of covering your sorry ass. I'm gonna report everything to Principal Wells and let him deal with it."

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Try me!"

"I'm…gonna…KILL YOU!" Nathan screamed angrily, jumped up and onto the table towards Max, who was completely stunned by this overwhelming outbreak of violence.

Nathan's hands were about to grab Max's neck into a choking hold, but stopped merely a few inches before making contact. The air seemed to smell like ozone and both stared at each other in surprise for a moment, until Nathan was suddenly thrown back and hit the ground hard.

Above him stood Chloe, who glared at him agitatedly. She put one of her combat boots on his chest and bent down a bit, her blue eyes seeming to glow in the light of the room.

"If you try to touch her ever again, I'm gonna rip off your fucking junk and stick it so hella deep into your ugly ass that you can suck on your own balls! Got it?" the bluenette hissed and intensified her glare.

Everything Nathan could muster in fear, was a frantically nodding, before he turned onto his belly, crawled towards the door, stood up and ran out of the office.

"What a fucking ass-…" before Chloe could finish her sentence, she's taken into a tight embrace by Max.

"Thank you!" the brunette whispered quietly, followed by a sniff as she tightened the embrace even more.

Chloe smiled warmly and brushed through Max's hair, rocking her softly. "Dude, you really should get another job."

"Or just hire you as my bodyguard." the smaller girl replied with a scoff, breaking the hug to look at Chloe. "Your hair," she said with a frown, combing through the punk-girl's blue hair, "It seems to glow somehow."

"I…uh…I just re-dyed it this morning. It'll fade…soon." Chloe answered plainly, and turned away, "Let's munch or else I'm gonna starve."

Taken aback by Chloe's sudden change of mood, Max just stared at her quizzically, but then remembered what Dana had said.

' _If she's really carrying that much around that it makes her cry, I shouldn't wonder when she reacts sensible to some topics. I should better not poke any deeper.'_ she thought, almost expecting Chloe to be still in a bad mood, but as the bluenette faced her again with a wide smirk on her face, she was even more surprised.

" _Meat 'n' greed_ or _Veggie-na?_ " the punk-girl said, holding up two wrapped sandwiches.

"Wh-what?!"

"Carnivore or herbivore?"

"Oh…uhm…I-I think I'll take the bacon sandwich. Thanks, Chlo!"

"Really?" Chloe said with one arched eyebrow, "And I would've thought you were completely into Veggies."

"I am," Max replied with smile and unwrapped her meal, "But not when it comes to food."

"Huh."

Both girls sat down and started to eat, chewing on their for in silence.

"Max?"

"Hmm?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"As a student council, you listen to student's complains, right?"

"Sadly, yes. But not only students, but also teachers." She let out a big sigh. "Originally, I was supposed to be a link between students and the faculty, and it was actually fun to help everyone out. But last year, Principal Wells," she quoted the next word, " _upgraded_ my job and turned me into a filter for every shitty complain and problem there is at this fucking school so that he would've more time to crawl up some donator's rich ass."

"That…hella sucks ass!"

"Yeah! But I only have to pull through this shit one last year. At least, they cut me some slack with my grades. But why did you ask?"

"Well," Chloe began, lowered her gaze and scratched her neck, "I…uhm…I kinda have a complain about a student, and…uh…I think you can help me with it."

A bit angry about that even Chloe wanted to file in a complain, Max almost lost her temper. "Okay, if this is about Victoria or one of her Vortex fuckers, just write me an e-mail and get in line. Dog, I'm so tired of this fucking Vortex-Club."

"Uhm…no, Max. Chillax, it's not 'bout them."

"Huh?! But who else would mess with you on your first day?"

"Okay, listen. There is this girl…I don't know, probably your height…and I met her yesterday. And there's something about her that hella annoys the shit out of me."

"Okay, I admit, Rachel can be very…"

"No, not Rachel! The girl I'm talking about is brunette,"

' _Fuck.'_

"Has freckles all over her cute face,"

' _Me.'_

"And is totally into me."

' _Sideways.'_

"But the thing is that I totally dig her, too, but don't know how to ask her out since she's always so busy. And despite that she already wets her panties only by seeing me, she doesn't ask me for a date either. What should I do?" said Chloe, leaned forward and grinned at Max with anticipation.

For a long moment, Max just sat there and stared at a mischievous smirking Chloe. Her thoughts were making a rollercoaster all honors, while her heart almost jumped out of her chest and her breathing was close to hyperventilation. She licked her dry lips, ready to give her crush an answer.

"W-well…uhm…" she stammered, "Wh-why d-don't you just use…uh…th-the first opportunity to ask her?"

"Hmm…" the bluenette hummed, pinching her chin like thinking about this advise, "I don't know. Sounds too simple."

"Goddammit, Chloe, just ask me out!" Max suddenly blurted out to release the tension.

Chloe's smirk grew even wider as she got up, rested her hands on the desk and leaned in until her face was only a few inches from Max' away. "Okay, Caulfield, wanna go on a hella hot date with me?"

"Y-yes!" the brunette exhaled quietly and moved her head closer to Chloe's, ready to place a kiss on her lips, but was stopped as hers just touched a finger.

"Uh-uh! No kiss before the first date. I'm not that cheap, y'know?"

A knock on the door let both girls end this intimate moment. Max cleaned her throat in order to calm down a bit. "Well shit, I think my fucking duty calls."

"Yeah, I need to prepare myself for my next class, too."

"You mean, you need a smoke."

"Yup!"

"We'll see us tonight?"

"You can bet your sweet ass on that."

"Does this count as our date, then?"

"Nope!"

And with this word, Chloe opened the door and stepped out while another student entered.

' _Max Caulfield, you're back in the game!'_ she thought with a warm smile, completely ignoring the student in front of her.

* * *

5th August 2016, Portland, Oregon

Sunrise Orphanage

A wide, devilish grin painted his bearded face as he was about to take his final reward. In front of him lied Chloe Price, the girl who, until now, resisted everyone. But not anymore. In a few moments this resistance would finally be drowned in screams and groans.

Pater Jefferson fixed his gaze on the scenery in front of him. He was ready. Ready to take what was rightfully his own. He readied himself, took position and wanted to enter her. But he seemed to have missed, so he tried again. And again and again, but to no avail. It was like an invisible barrier separated them, making even the slightest contact impossible.

"How's this possible?!" Jefferson hissed furiously, trying once more to enter the young girl, and again he failed.

Chloe's whimpering and sobbing had stopped some moments ago. Now, an evil grin was formed by her lips and an eerily snickering emerged from her mouth.

"What is it, Jeffershit? Having trouble to score?" the young girl said with amusement and a slightly distorted voice.

"SHUT UP!" he yelled back in anger, giving her a slap on the head and gave it another try, until Jefferson suddenly had a strange feeling on his sex, like someone was grabbing it in a tight hold, but there was nothing.

"You know, Jeffersuck," Chloe began, "Let's have a look at what's wrong with you."

The sound of ripping flesh chimed through the room, followed by an intensively loud scream of agony. Pater Jefferson crumbled to the ground, his hands covering his blooding crotch.

Slowly, Chloe lifted herself up from the bend over position and turned around to face her tormentor. Her eyes were glowing deep-blue as well as her hair. She bobbed her head to one side and shifted her gaze to Jefferson's sex, which was hovering right beside her. Blood dripped from it to the ground, already forming a puddle.

"Hmm, I think I know what the problem is." she said nonchalantly, glancing at Jefferson without any emotion again, "You are a dickless fuck!"

His body now entirely flooded with adrenaline, Mark stared at the now blue-haired girl in shock. "Th-the devil…y-you are the devil!"

Chloe threw her head back, laughing out loud before gazing at Jefferson with amusement again.

"The devil? Look who's talking."

"The Lord will punish you!"

Instantly, the amusement vanished from Chloe's face. "The Lord." she scoffed. Then, without her moving a limb, Jefferson was lifted up from the ground and floated in mid-air, arms spread out. Chloe closed in slowly, until she was almost face to face with the man she hated for so long. "How many lives have you destroyed? How many children lost their innocence because of you? How many of them have you driven into suicide? You still think you're doing god's work, do you?" she said emotionlessly, a single tear rolling down her cheek, before her lips formed an evil smile again.

With a sound of ripping flesh and sinews, Jefferson's right hand was ripped off his arm in a slow motion, making him scream again. Blood spurted from the open wound, painting everything in its direction red.

"You wanna see a god's work?", Chloe asked, after he'd stopped crying again, with an even more distorted voice, her eyes glowing more intensively as she moved her head even closer to Jefferson's, "I am a god!"


	5. Chapter 4: Arcadia Nights

**Chapter 4: Arcadia Nights**

4th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon  


Downtown

Arcadia Bay wasn't what teenagers would call a party mile. Besides of all those shabby bars for truckers, fishermen and other shady people, there was only one place with a welcoming atmosphere and a playlist that didn't contain any country songs. _The Spot_ was a bar for people who enjoyed to have a drink after work or wanted to meet some friends. Of course it was forbidden to sell any alcohol to persons under 21, but a fake ID or 50 bucks could easily shift the age limit.

With a click a flame emerged from Chloe's lighter, igniting the cigarette in her mouth. Her face was enlightened by the orange glowing tobacco as the bluenette girl took a deep draft, followed by a long exhale. For over 30 minutes she had been standing in a dark alley across the street of that bar where Max and her friends wanted to meet for a girls night.

As she spotted her crush walking down the street, she just dropped the half-smoked cigarette. It joined the other five cigarette-butts around her feet and with a last stomp on the remaining ember she left the alley and approached Max.

To Chloe's surprise, the small brunette wasn't wearing her casual clothes, but a violet button shirt instead of her grey hoodie and black skinny jeans instead of blue ones. The punk girl on the other hand wore the same standard garments as usual. Summed up, Max looked like she was about to go on a date. The wide, amorous smile on her face as she spotted Chloe underlined this fact even more.

"Sorry for being late!" Max said, giving Chloe a warm hug.

"No thing, Maximus," the punk replied, backed away a bit and glanced at the girl in front of her from head to toe, "Damn, lookin' hot, Caulfield!"

"Well, I kinda wanted to look good for you." she answered shyly, averting the bluenette's gaze.

A slight blush appeared on Chloe's cheek. She'd never been officially a mushy person, but hearing such a romantic comment from a sweet girl like Max let her heart skip a beat. _'Fuck, if she's looking that hot on a girls night, then how hella hot is she gonna look on our date?'_

"So, where are the others?" Max asked, bringing Chloe back from her thoughts.

"Oh…uhm…they're already inside. I…uh…I just waited for you."

"Aww, that's so sweet! Never thought, you could be such a romantic."

"I…uh…I'm actually not, but…uhm…but for you I made an exception." she stammered with a wry smirk, blushing a bit more as Max suddenly planted a peck on her reddened cheek.

"You look cute when you're flustered," she spoke softly, intertwining her fingers with Chloe's, "C'mon, let's get inside!"

* * *

A mix of modern pop music and loud chitter-chatter engulfed Chloe as she and Max entered the bar. Figuring that the smaller girl wasn't the first time in this place, she let her take the lead, guiding them between the tables until they reached what seemed to be their regular space.

On said table already sat three girls of which only Rachel was familiar to Chloe.

"Hi guys," cheered Max, giving every one of them a hug, before she stood at Chloe's side again, "I want you to meet Chloe. Chloe, these are Dana," she pointed at a tall brunette girl, who gave her a smile and a nod, "Brooke," the black-haired Asian girl just gave Chloe a short glimpse before focusing on her smartphone again, "and you already met Rachel."

"Hey guys!" Chloe just said plainly, shaking everyone's hand before taking a seat beside Max.

"So, this is the infamous Chloe, who turns our little Max's world upside down?" Dana started the conversation, making everyone shifting their attention to the blue-haired girl. Except Brooke, who was still playing with her phone.

"Yup, the one and only," Chloe replied with a smirk, "I hope she just told you good stuff 'bout me."

"It sounded like you are a goddess."

"Really?!" Chloe gasped out of surprise, glimpsing at Max, who just blushed and looked the other way, while the other three girls giggled.

A few minutes later the waitress arrived at the girls table and took their orders. While Max, Dana and Rachel ordered some Cocktails, Chloe stuck with a simple beer and Brooke took an orange juice.

"Alcohol is poison for the brain. Each sip kills a lot of brain cells and I just can't afford to lose one of them." was the Asian girl's explanation after she received some snarky comments.

"I heard you're from Portland, is that right, Chloe?" Dana asked the bluenette after their drinks had arrived.

"Uhm, yeah. Lived there as long as I can remember."

"That's cool," said the brunette cheerleader, smiling widely, "I spent my childhood there, too. My parents moved to Arcadia Bay when I was 11 years old. Are your folks still living in Portland?"

Not knowing, how Chloe would react to this question, Max instinctually took her hand an gave it a reassuring soft squeeze. And the punk-girl was grateful for it. At first her gaze just dropped, but after receiving Max's soft and comforting touch, she just took a deep breath before she answered with a melancholically voice.

"My…my parents are dead." It was like a shroud of silence was suddenly covering the whole table. Besides a loud gasp and a _I'm so sorry!_ by Dana, everyone stayed quiet. "They died when I was a child. I…I don't know how old I was, but…since that day I lived in an orphanage."

"Chloe," Rachel said on the behalf of the others, giving Chloe's other hand a soft touch, "We're sorry! We didn't know…"

"It's okay," she answered with a scoff, taking another deep breath and a long sip from her beer, "I don't brag about it or want anybody's pity. Life sucks most of the time, but sometimes," she glimpsed at Max with a warm smile, "sometimes it gets better."

Max and Chloe shared a long gaze, both of their eyes watery, until the taller girl looked away again. "I need a cig." she mentioned out of a sudden and walked to the exit in a bee-line.

Sometimes smoking helped against the stress, and sometimes it didn't. Today was a day it didn't help. And it was during these days that Chloe wished for nothing more than to stop smoking; to get rid of this bad habit; but it wasn't that easy. Her body always wanted more, but maybe Max could help with that; give her enough distraction. Maybe even make her forget the past.

' _Max is special. Something about her gives me so much comfort…even more than…than Steph was able to give me.'_

' _I'm special, too. But in a fucked up way. Hopefully, Max never has to find out about my special abilities. I never asked for them, I don't want them.'_

"Chloe," Max's soft voice chimed from behind, followed by a soft touch on her arm, which sent electrically jolts through her body, "You're alright?"

"Yeah, I'm…I'm okay, just…y'know…"

"Bad memories?"

Chloe blew a column of bluish smoke in the air, before she nodded, flicking away the half-smoked cigarette. Then, both girls embraced each other in a tight, comforting hug.

"Wanna go back inside or…I don't know…take a walk?" Max asked after they parted.

"Nah, let's get back inside. I don't wanna be the sucker who separates you from your friends."

Arm in arm, the two girls went back inside, only to stop half-way.

"Head on to our table, I need to hit the loo."

"The _loo_?" Chloe asked cynically with one arched eyebrow, receiving a soft push on her shoulder.

"Oh, shut up, you! Not everybody speaks your gutter language!"

"Hey, _shitter_ is a classic!"

Giving Chloe a stuck out tongue, Max made her way to the restrooms, while the bluenette headed for their table, but changed her direction to the bar as she remembered that her beer was almost empty.

A new bottle in her hand, she approached their spot and realized that only Rachel and Brooke were still sitting there, their backs turned to Chloe.

' _Huh, looks like Dana had to take a piss, too. Or powder her nose 'n' shit. Maybe I should use the opportunity to learn more about Max's BFF, since as her gonna-be-girlfriend I…what the fuck?! Are Brooke and Rachel holding hands under the table? If Max knew about this then she would've told me yesterday. So much for BFF, ey? I should poke the bush a bit, let's see what comes out!'_

With cautious steps Chloe came closer and closer to the table. Since the front door and the restrooms were in their perspective, Brooke and Rachel never would expect someone approaching from behind. Chloe knew that she needed to use the element of surprise to render all possible excuses useless. The closer she came the more she could overhear their conversation.

"…just a normal girl, no worries!" said Brooke, squeezing the blonde's hand.

"I don't know," Rachel sighed, "Something's pretty off here."

"Rach, don't go there again. You know very well that the High Coun…"

"Heya, girls!" shouted Chloe as she jumped on her seat, giving the both startled girls a loud, mischievous snicker.

"Goddammit, Chloe, I almost kicked your ass!" yelled Rachel at the blue-haired punk, while Brooke embraced her arm.

"Sorry guys, but it was too tempting. Now fun aside, how long are you two a thing?"

Instantly, Brooke broke the contact to Rachel, averting everybody's gaze, while the blonde stared at Chloe with a sour expression.

"Listen, usually I don't give a shit 'bout such things, but I know that Max doesn't know about this and she hella deserves to know."

"Chloe, whatever you think you saw…"

"Think I saw?" Chloe interrupted the blonde girl, "Don't gaslight me here, Rachel. Holding hands under the table is pretty obvious, plus you two acted kinda caught when I jump-scared you."

Rachel let out a big huff in defeat. "Fine, if it's so important to you, yes, we are a couple. Happy?"

"For how long?"

"1700 years, give or take." Brooke muttered, receiving a soft hit in her side by a really pissed off Rachel.

"Listen, Chloe, it's not official and we want to keep it that way, got it?"

"Not even Max?"

Rachel crossed her arms, her stern expression radiating determination. "Not. Even. Max."

"Just FYI, since she's your best friend, I think that's just fucked up. I won't talk, but consider myself pretty pissed about this!" Chloe answered, crossing arms herself as, suddenly, she received a soft peck on her cheek.

* * *

After she went to the toilet, Max washed her hands and splashed some water in her face. The flush of another toilet chimed and Dana emerged from another stall.

"Wow, you and Chloe really have something going on. How long do you know each other?" the brunette cheerleader asked, washing her hands, too.

"Since yesterday," Max answered with a warm smile, paired with a soft blush, "It's sooo magical, like in a dream. I never thought that I could crush on someone that hard." Then she turned to Dana, looking into her eyes deeply. "Dana, I know you meant well this morning, but considering what you know about her now, can you really judge her for having a meltdown?"

"No," answered the taller girl, chiding herself internally for her said words, "she really seems to be a nice girl, not my type, but definitely nice and good for you. I see how you finally blossom up after the whole Victoria-crap."

"Don't remind me of that. Though I'm not happy how it ended, I'm definitely relieved that it's finally over. Vicky is history and Chloe's my future."

"Wow, that was somewhat poetic."

"Shush, you!" Max said with a wink as she and Dana left the restroom and headed back to their table.

As soon as the small brunette saw the shining blue hair of her crush she went straight towards it, leaned in and gave Chloe a peck on the cheek, clearly surprising her. And as the punk-girl blushed, Max wasn't able to suppress a chuckle.

"Girl! Y'know, one day I'll get back at ya for this mushy ambush!"

"I hope so!"

"Geez, get a room, you two!" said Brooke, her gaze fixed on her smartphone again, while Dana and Rachel chuckled upon Max's and Chloe's fluster.

* * *

For the next two hours the girls talked about various topics: school, teachers, other students, upcoming contests and bandwidth of other girl's stuff.

Though most of the time Chloe didn't know what they were talking about, Max tried to give her the needed information so that she could at least have an opinion.

Sometimes, the small brunette gazed at her crush for several minutes, taking in her beautiful silhouette. Even without the whole dating and the fact that they only knew each other for two days, everybody on this table agreed that Max and Chloe were an official couple.

"Well, girls, curfew's getting close. We should head back to Blackwell," Rachel mentioned, taking a last sip from her Cocktail. "And as I said, all drinks are on me, so I'm just gonna pay the bill and be with ya in a jiff!"

While Dana, Chloe and Max grabbed their stuff and left the bar, Brooke went for the toilettes and Rachel paid the tab.

"I ask myself when they're finally gonna make it official." said Dana out of the blue as they waited outside.

"Who?" asked Max with a frown.

"Rachel and Brooke. It's pretty obvious that they have something going on."

"What?! You're shitting me, right?" the smaller brunette replied in unbelief.

"Nope," Chloe threw in, "They're fucking each other. Found out myself after I came back from having a smoke and surprised them."

"Great," Max huffed, crossing her arms, and pouted, "Everybody knows and I'm out of the loop again."

The door of the bar opened and Brooke and Rachel came out, chatting with each other. Both stopped and looked at the three other girls, who were watching them with serious glimpses.

"Is something wrong?" Rachel asked with a wry, but also insecure smile, clearly unaware of what's going on.

"You and Brooke, seriously? Why haven't you told me?" Max blurted out, making Rachel look at Chloe with an agitated glare.

"Hey, don't look at me! I kept my pie hole shut. Dana babbled it out." the bluenette said, putting up her hands in defense.

Rachel sighed in defeat while Brooke took out her smartphone again and hid her blushing face behind it. "Listen, Max, I'm sorry I haven't told you, but I and Brooke wanted to keep this between us for the moment. But I would've told you, eventually."

"And what about this stupid story with Warren? Brooke almost drove me insane with it!" yelled Max aggressively.

"That was just bullshit, Max." chimed Brooke's mumbled answer from behind the phone.

"Great! Really fucking great! Not only, that you kept it a secret from me while I was hitting on you two, no. You assholes even lied to me!"

"Max…" Rachel tried to comfort and wanted to touch Max's arm, who, however, withdrew it instantly.

"You know what, Rachel, fuck you! First this crap with Victoria, then Nathan tries to rage on me and now this. I'm done for today!"

Without wasting another second, Max turned on the spot and walked away with angry steps, first tears already emerging from her eyes.

"Max, where are you going?" the blonde called after her, making the brunette girl to glimpse at her furiously.

"I'm going home and there I'm gonna bawl about that my best friend fucked me over!" she yelled back, only to turn around and keep on walking again.

"Well," Chloe began, inhaling the night's air deeply, "It was a nice evening with a shitty ending. See ya!" With a faint wave of her hand, Chloe followed Max but turned around one more time to gaze at Rachel. "By the way, I told you so!"

* * *

Streets of Arcadia Bay

"Yo Max, wait up!" chimed Chloe's voice from behind as they walked through the dark and empty streets. But Max didn't stop because she wanted the bluenette to catch up, but to turn around and yell at her, too.

"Why should I wait for you? Why are you even following me?" the brunette girl blurted out, fury burning deep inside her, because she felt betrayed by everyone.

"Chill, Maxi!" Chloe replied with a calm voice to pacify the angry girl, "I just wanna walk you home and talk with you, that's all."

"You knew it, Chloe, and didn't tell me shit, too!"

"Okay, you're right. I knew it and didn't tell you anything. Guilty there, but…I found out a few minutes before you came back from the bathroom and Rachel asked me not to tell you, though I told her that it's pretty fucked to keep you out of the loop. I'm sorry that I played her stupid game, okay!"

For a long moment, both girls looked at each other, and the longer their gazes were connected the more Max calmed down, until she made a few steps towards Chloe and embraced her tightly.

"I'm so sorry, Chlo," she said with a trembling and weak voice, "This day has already been so fucked up and now this…"

"It's okay, Maxi. I'm not mad at you. I…uh…I even deserved a bit rage."

"No," answered Max, shaking her head as she backed away a bit, "You deserve better!" Without any warning, Max leaned in, tiptoed and placed a kiss on Chloe's lips.

Entirely surprised by this sign of affection, the punk-girl just stood there, limbs stiffened, barely able to reply the kiss.

"S-sorry," the brunette stuttered after she broke the contact, biting her lower lip, "I…I broke your rule, but…"

Chloe didn't bother to let her girlfriend finish the sentence. She pulled the smaller girl closer once more and let their lips collide again.

Softly, both girls backed away again, gazing at each other intensively. It took Max a lot of self-control not to burst into tears. After such a long time she felt happy again. All the troubles, the worries and these almost devastating feelings of loneliness were blown away in merely seconds. If there were any doubts before, this kiss eradicated them instantly.

"Chloe," Max whispered softly, "I…I think I lo-"

This intimate moment was interrupted by a sudden thud. With a groan and a pain grimaced face Chloe lost her balance fell towards Max, who was unable to hold the bluenette and hit the ground together with her.

Before she was even able to free herself from Chloe's body on top of her, Max was grabbed by her collar, dragged into a dark alley and pulled to her feat, only to be face-to-face with Nathan Prescott.

"Surprised to see me, cunt?" he hissed into her face and before the girl was able to answer him, she was pushed further into the alleyway. Unable to hold her balance, Max stumbled and fell again, hitting the ground with a groan. A kick into her stomach followed stat, making her whimper in agony.

As the first pain abated slowly after a few seconds, the brunette girl was able to look up and saw that Nathan stood right beside her, a baseball bat in his hands.

"N-Nathan…" she whispered with a shivering voice, the pain in her stomach almost unbearable.

The brown-haired boy kneeled down beside Max, grabbed her hair and pulled her head up. The additional strong pain made the young girl scream in agony.

"Not so strong when your punk-dyke isn't able to help you anymore, huh?"

"Nathan…please…" Max pleaded, but only achieved that Nathan dropped her head, letting it hit the concrete.

"I got suspended because of you! My truck got confiscated by the police and my dad refuses to get it back and grounded me for a whole month!" His words followed a kick into Max's stomach.

"V-Vicky…sh-she will…"

"Oh, you think Vic will bust my ass for this? Well, newsflash, cunt: Vic left Arcadia Bay after you fucked her over!" he spoke with a slight amusement, "You see, no one can help you, feminazi. You're alone and now you'll get what you deserve!"

"Chloe…" Max whimpered in desperation as she realized that Nathan was right. She was alone at the moment. Maybe her only chance to get away from this psycho was to scream for help, but she hadn't even taken a breath as Nathan's foot hit her head.

For a short moment everything went dark and colorful lights danced in her sight. Then she suddenly heard a groan, followed by Nathan's yelling voice.

"You fucking dyke, lemme down!"

Max tried to focus on the scenery, but everything in her view was all blurry and her hearing must've been damaged, too, because Chloe's voice sounded pretty strange.

"I told you to leave her alone!"

"Wh-what are you? Put me down, you sick freakshow!" chimed Nathan's fear dripping voice.

With every passing second her senses normalized again. The multiple lights had stopped and only a bluish one, which was hovering around Chloe's head like a corona, stayed.

"You will pay for what you did to her! Prepare to…"

"Chloe?" Max finally managed to say, the vail of dizziness dissipating more and more.

"Max!" Chloe now said with a normal sounding voice, while Nathan hit the ground hard. The blue light was gone and slowly Max tried to get up. Every part of her body hurt, making her groan, but as the brunette felt the warmth of Chloe's embrace as the bluenette helped her, all the pain was suddenly gone and replaced by relief. "You're okay? Are you hurt?"

As she heard this deep and sincere concern within Chloe's voice, Max just smiled at her warmly, before taking her into another tight embrace.

* * *

Arcadia Bay Harbor

His muscular body was covered with sweat. He was focused, ready for everything. Unaware of where the next attack would come from, he put every bit of concentration into his senses.

The room was entirely dark. Colonel Sanders only wore his training sweatpants, while his opponents were armed with wooden training batons and equipped with night vision goggles.

His breathing was calm and steady, almost not hearable. The rustling of some fabric told the Colonel that someone was behind him. Some heavy breathing made him aware that another opponent was straight ahead. And as the mat he was standing on moved a bit to the left, Sanders instantly knew that someone was closing in from the right.

He took a step back, averting the attacker's wide swing by some inches, and let follow a hard punch to the adversary's stomach, sending him on his knees with a groan. But before he could knock him out entirely, the next attack occurred from behind. Not able to dodge this strike, Sanders blocked it with his arm, altering its direction and placed a heavy kick on the other man's chest, which let him fly backwards until his body collided with the wall. Unconscious he slid to the ground.

While the first attacker still tried to get on his feet again, the last opponent approached, ready to let his baton hit the Colonel's back, who, however, quickly turned around and grabbed the wooden stick mid-air. At the same time, the lights were turned on, blinding the combatants.

While the attacker tried to remove the night vision off his head with a groan, Sanders just blinked a few times, ripped the stick off his grasp and hit him on the forehead, sending him unconscious to the ground.

As the door was opened and a young Lieutenant entered, the Colonel pointed the wooden baton at the last capable fighter.

"Stay down!" he said with a cold voice and the other man complied without any resistance. "Report, Lieutenant!" the broad man continued, grabbing a towel from a hook on the wall to dry himself off.

"Sir, we detected another high peak of blue Omega-Waves." the young man spoke after straightening his body.

"Confirmation?"

"Yes, Sir," the Lieutenant answered, handing the Colonel a thin sheet of plastic, where various data and a picture of a blue-haired girl were displayed. "99 percent confirmation."

"Excellent work, Lieutenant! Set our team on stand-by and inform Mr. Wilcock! I want full observation on the target."

"Sir, yes, Sir!" spoke the soldier, turned on the spot and left.

Colonel Sanders took a sip from a water bottle and made his way to the door. He stopped one last time in his tracks. "NVGs are a nice gimmick, but also have a lot of disadvantages. The key is to trust your own senses. Tell this to the others as soon as they're awake. Dismissed!" he spoke without turning around, then continued to walk towards his quarters, caught deep in thoughts.

' _This time she won't get away! If this is my last operation, I'm gonna do it right!'_

* * *

Not far from Blackwell Academy

Walking side-by-side, their arms wrapped around each others hip, Chloe and Max slowly approached Blackwell Academy and Max's house, which was on the way.

"Dude, this Nathan-guy's hella shitty-fucked-up dangerous. You need to report this!" Chloe said, making them stop and gazed into Max's eyes seriously.

"I-I know, and I will. This time, he went too far. Normally, Vicky held him on a leash, but now that she's back in Seattle…" Max let out a deep sigh, averting Chloe's sight for a moment. "This lunatic needs to be locked away. I ignored it way too long." Then she locked eyes with her girlfriend again, giving her a warm smile. "Thank you, Chloe, for everything!"

"Hey, saving your sweet butt-"

"No, not just that…" the brunette interrupted her, "Thanks for saving me yesterday at the tour. Thanks for comforting me in my office and keeping me company. Thanks for saving me from Nathan, twice. Thanks for asking me out for a date. Thanks for the kiss. Thanks for making me happy!"

With every spoken _Thanks_ Chloe's eyes welled up more and more. She was speechless. Nobody before thanked her so much. And as she realized the deep determination and love that was radiated by Max's eyes, all Chloe could do was to take the smaller girl into a tight embrace. Small sobs emerged from her mouth, while her grasp on Max got stronger as her emotional barrier broke down.

Already knowing that Chloe was carrying lots of emotional pain inside, Max rocked her softly and whispered in her ear. "Let it all out, Chloe. It's alright. I'm here and I'm ready to share your burdens."

Her head still resting on the small brunette's shoulder, Chloe shook it. "I'm a fucked up person, Max. I'm broken beyond repair. You better run and-"

Quickly, Max broke the hug, looking at Chloe intensively. "You are a good person, Chlo! You helped me so much; rescued me. You even comforted Vicky after I raged on her, though you couldn't even stand her. Chloe, you are a hero!"

"Max…there's a bad side in me. I'm…I'm dangerous…I…"

Wrapping her arms around Chloe's neck, Max pulled her close for another intense kiss that lasted nearly a minute. After they parted, the smaller girl brushed over the bluenette's wet cheek and gave her the warmest smile she ever had given someone.

"Everybody has a bad side, that's normal. Don't think so less of yourself. You're so special, Chloe; so unique! I never met someone like you before." she soothed, followed by another peck on Chloe's lips, "C'mon, let's get you back to Blackwell!"

* * *

Max and Chloe arrived at the campus past curfew. They both knew that they had to stay out of sight from the guards or else Chloe would be in big trouble.

"Well, I better sneak inside. You sure you wanna walk home alone?" whispered Chloe to Max as they hid behind a brick wall.

"No," answered the small brunette, making her girlfriend turn towards her, "C-can I spent the night at your place? My mom's working late and my dad's on business travel in New York. I-I just don't wanna be alone tonight."

Entirely stunned by this proposition, Chloe gulped and stared at the small brunette, not knowing what to answer out of nervousness. "Uhm…uh…s-sure…uh…"

"Thanks!" Max said with a smile, planting another kiss on the punk-girl's cheek, "C'mon, I know a safe way inside."

"How so?"

"Back, when I was still dating Vicky, I used to sneak in and out the dorm frequently. With the time you learn the shift patterns and patrol-routes of the guards, plus the one or other trick, such as…" She reached inside her bag and pulled out a keyring. "…stealing a stupid guard's keys and copy the master-key for the Prescott-dormitories."

"Okay, Caulfield, you just took the pole position on my list of badassery." Chloe commented with a toothy smirk as she followed Max along the brick-wall that surrounded the campus.

"Damn!" Max cursed as they'd reached a tree.

"What is it?"

"These fuckers cut down the branch, which I always used to climb up the tree and over this stupid wall."

"Hmm…I think I can do it and give you a hand once I'm up there."

Not believing her girlfriend, Max crossed her arms and gazed at her with a frown. "Chlo, it's too high, even for you, and there's nothing to hold on to."

"I bet that I'm gonna be up there in under ten seconds." Chloe replied with a grin.

"What's the bet?"

"A backrub. I really need one of those after Prickscott batted me in the neck. Damn, I'm gonna kill this little fucker if I see him again!"

"Okay, one backrub it is. And if I'm right, you'll be my model for one day!"

"Oooh, how _kinky_!"

Max closed in slowly, painting with her index finger a hot trail over Chloe's chest. "Who said that I wanna take T-rated shots?"

The seductive tone in the smaller girl's voice almost cut off Chloe's breath, which she only could overcome with a gulp. "D-damn, Caulfield, now I almost want to lose the bet. But…I still wanna show you how awesome I am! Plus, I'm a sore loser."

Before Max knew what was going on, Chloe had already taken a few steps back, sprinted towards the tree and jumped. For a brief moment it seemed like the bluenette was floating up high, like in these old Kung-Fu movies. But knowing that this was impossible, the small brunette just shook her head and smiled at her girlfriend, who was sitting now on the lowest branch.

"See, told ya!" the punk-girl said victoriously with a toothy grin, earning an honest thumb-up and agreeing nod from Max.

"Alright, you got your backrub. And now to the part where you get me up there."

Chloe let herself fall with a giggle, now dangling headfirst from the tree, her legs crossed tightly around the branch. "C'mon, you can climb up on me."

"I'd rather love to climb onto you!" replied Max, staring at Chloe's bare belly that was visible due to the punk-girl's lose hanging top.

"Geez, you little horn dog, just keep it in your pants for some more minutes and focus on getting your sweet ass up here, will ya!"

With a deep breath, Max complied and began to climb up with Chloe's help. As soon as she was up that tree, she bridged the small leap between the plant and the wall and climbed down on it. Her eyes widened in awe as she saw how Chloe easily did the same in an incredible speed.

"Wowser, I never thought you were that sportive." Max said, panting heavily from the effort.

"Actually, I'm not. I just loved to climb up trees when I was a kid, hiding in the dense foliage from the other kids and the orphanage's supervisors," Chloe answered, her expression darkening a bit, "I would've loved to build a treehouse and live there forever, shutting out this fucking world."

"Hey," Max said softly, giving Chloe a warm smile while brushing over her arm, "We still can do that, y'know? Build our own tree-fortress and keep the world outside. Just the two of us."

"Yeah! I…I'd love that! Though we would shake all leafs off the tree."

Resting her hand on her hip, Max gazed at the blunette with a mocking smile. "And I'm the horn dog here?"

"Hey, you started it, now I'm hella horny," she replied with a shrug and headed for the back entrance.

Luckily, Blackwell hadn't changed any locks during the time after Max's and Victoria's break-up, so that the copied keys still worked and both girls could sneak inside the dorms. As they approached Chloe's room, which was right on the opposite of Victoria's, Max stopped and gazed at her ex-girlfriend's door, sighing deeply.

"I hurt her, Chlo." Max said with a low, melancholy voice, "I-I know she somehow deserved it, but…"

Taking the smaller girl in an embrace, Chloe brushed calmingly through her brown hair. "Just say it, Max. Say that you still had feelings for her, it's okay. I understand."

"Thank you! Sometimes I wished that we would've stayed in Seattle. Maybe she wouldn't have changed, but…ugh, it doesn't matter now. It's over and I'm glad to have you!"

"Sadly, we can't change the past to make a better present. C'mon, Maxi, let's get inside."

Chloe opened the door to her room and as soon as Max stood inside and looked around, her jaw dropped. "Wowser!" she gasped, "D-did you draw all those pictures?"

"Y-yeah…"

"They're beautiful!" Max took one of the sketches, showing a spaceship, and gazed at it more intensively "All those details. It's just awesome!" Then she an inscription caught her sight. " _Tha'lia_?"

Chloe came close to Max, looking into her blue eyes. "It's the name of the ship. Like every one of these pictures, it appeared in my dreams. I don't know why, but this name sounded so beautiful…like Max."

"M-my name isn't that beautiful, Chlo." the smaller girl replied, lowering her gaze with a blush.

"It is." Chloe spoke softly, leaned in and gave Max a soft kiss, whose breathing almost stopped.

"W-wowser, Chlo. Y-you really are a romantic."

"I'm a pile of mush, Max. I…I just don't like to show it to others." the punk confessed and turned away, but was turned around by a Max's soft touch.

"I like your mushy side," was Max's almost whispered answer, before she bit her bottom lip, "Now take off your shirt. I still owe you that backrub, right?"

"Mh-hm," was the blunette's short answer. Nervously and with shaking hands she stripped off her jacket, followed by her top and, to Max's full surprise, her black bra. "Like whatcha see?"

Staring at Chloe's bare chest with her mouth agape, everything the brunette could muster was a frantically nodding. She was only brought back to reality as Chloe turned around and laid down on her bed, her back showing upwards.

"C'mon, Maxi, your girl needs a rub!"

Once more, Max's small heart skipped a beat upon this more than ambiguous comment. Breathing became hard and her whole body was shaking out of nervousness as she slowly walked over to Chloe and sat down beside her. With some slight hesitation, Max's hands softly touched Chloe's slight pale and silky skin. The small girl had to muster every bit of concentration not to moan out, so did Chloe. But as Max started the massage, the blue-haired girl couldn't resist to groan in relief.

"Damn, Caulfield, y-you're a freakin' talent…r-right there…fuck yes!"

"Chloe?" Max suddenly spoke, stopping the treatment.

"Hmm?"

"Wh-where do all these scars come from?"

In a blink of an eye the relaxing moment was over. Chloe opened her eyes wide, jumped up and gazed at Max angrily. "Why do you ask? Think I did them to myself? Think I'm a fucking psycho?" she blurted out, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Chloe, I…I…" was Max's first stammered reply, before she closed her eyes, took a deep breath to overcome her first shock and talked with a soothing tone. "Chlo, you're not a psycho, and I never would've thought that you would do something like this to yourself." Slowly, she approached the blue-haired girl, like you would close in on a frightened dear, trying to calm it down. She stretched out her arm and softly touched one of the visible scars. "Who did this to you?"

"That's the treatment you got at _Sunrise_ when you didn't play by their rules or refused to let them fuck you."

Max's eyes widened as she somehow recalled this name and combined it with what Chloe already had told her about her past. " _Sunrise_? As in _Sunrise_ _Orphanage_ in Portland?" She covered her mouth and gasped as she saw the hurt in her girlfriend's watery eyes as she spoke out the name. "Oh my god, y-you where there! I-I heard about it in the media. The scandal, th-the murder. I…I'm so sorry…"

Chloe exhaled deeply, wiping one tear from her cheek, and sat down on the bed. "Why are you sorry? It wasn't you who locked me up in this hellhole. At least one of those fuckers got what he deserved and they closed the place down." A sob by Max let her look up to her, and as she realized that the small girl was crying, because she was now understanding Chloe's inner pain, the bluenette grabbed her hand and pulled her softly closer, only to wrap her arms around her girlfriend for a long, soothing hug.

"I'm so sorry, Chloe. I didn't know…"

"Nobody here knows, Max. And I wanna keep it that way. I don't need anybody's pity. I only need you!" They broke the hug, gazing at each other deeply, until Chloe spoke some words Max wanted to tell her earlier this evening, but was interrupted by Nathan's attack back then. "I love you, Max!"

Max would've loved to cry again, but instead, Chloe pulled her in for another long kiss.

The rest of the night, both girls were curling up in Chloe's bed, arms entangled and bodies pressed close together. This was the first night Chloe had no fear of uncertainty, because she knew that Max was right there with her and would never leave her alone.

* * *

6th August 2016, Portland, Oregon

Sunrise Orphanage

The epic soundtrack from _Lord of the Rings_ chimed through the speakers of her car as Detective Stephanie 'Steph' Gingrich approached the vicinities of the _Sunrise Orphanage_. Policeman and police cars were scattered all over the grounds, blocking the road or searching the premises.

The young, auburn-haired woman with a blue beanie on her head parked the car right in front of the large door that lead inside the building. She waited until the last tones of the recent song had abated, bobbed her head in satisfaction and got out of the vehicle.

Wearing her casual clothes, a blue jeans and a shirt, only the holstered gun, the badge and handcuffs on her belt indicated that she was a police officer. She made her way to the big front door, where an Afro-American, young man with glasses waited for her.

"Mikey, 'sup?"

Her partner, Michael 'Mikey' North, greeted her with their personal handshake and took the slender woman into a tight hug. "Geez, Steph, the Captain's already raging around the house. What was it this time?"

Steph backed away and gave Mikey a soft push. "I only finished the quest for next weekend. Elamon is going down this time!"

"You wish!" Mikey responded as they made their way inside the building, which swarmed with police. "I hope you won't dig up Duurgaron again. I killed this guy nearly a hundred times already."

"Pft, Duurgaron stays dead. Besides…"

"Detective!" a furious sounding male voice chimed from an older man in police uniform, "This is the second time you're too late. The operators of this place want to go back to normal as fast as possible and these fucking reporters are already trying to enter the premises."

"Sorry, Cap, won't happen again!"

"I hope so!" he snapped back, changing his focus to Detective North, "Have you already briefed her?"

"No, sir."

"Then do it! I need to talk to the Commissioner and try to feed these fucking vultures out there with some info."

With angry steps, the captain stomped away, leaving Steph and Mikey standing in the hallway.

"Geez, this guy needs to take it easy on coffee." Mikey mentioned, earning a snicker from his partner.

"Yeah. So, gimme the juicy details."

The two Detectives walked down the hall, heading for the crime scene while Mikey told Steph about the case.

"The whole thing's pretty fucked up. This morning, the morning-shift of this place was about to take over. Normally, the boss of this joint; a Pater Mark Jefferson; always instructed the staff before they started their work, but he didn't show up. One of the supervisors thought that he might've overslept and searched him in his quarters, but didn't find the Pater there, so he tried to find him in his office."

They now arrived at Jefferson's office and as Steph Gingrich looked inside she gasped, covering her mouth with one hand. "Holy fuck!"

"The door was locked from the inside, but as the supervisor saw the blood seeping from under the door, he called the police immediately. As soon as our men arrived, the janitor opened the door and this is what they found."

The whole office was sprinkled with blood from floor to ceiling. Guts and body parts were scattered everywhere, and on the desk laid Jefferson's bloodied head with his sex stuffed into his mouth.

From a metallic case that was standing right beside the door, Steph and Mikey took some rubber gloves and plastic sheaths for their shoes before they entered the office, watching that they didn't step too much in the half-dried blood, which sometimes let them stick to the ground.

"Well, looks like the _Butcher's_ room."

"Yeah," scoffed Mikey dryly, "Sadly we're not in a videogame."

"What's this?" Steph asked, as she pointed at a big, circular and bloodless spot in the middle of the room.

"As I already told you, this whole thing's shady as hell. As the officers came in here, they found a half-naked girl, laying curled up and unconscious in exactly that spot; not one drop of blood on her."

"Wait, you said that the door was locked from the inside. Do you think that she…?"

"No. Not even the strongest man on this planet could rip a human into pieces."

"You mean that he was ripped apart?"

"Yes. No signs of cuts or saw-marks. Ripped off. And unless someone managed to bring some heavy machinery in here to do the work, it's impossible to do something like this."

Steph crouched and took a closer look at one of the ripped off limbs, scrunched up her nose and stood up again. "Still, to pull something like this off must've caused a lot of noise. Didn't anybody hear a thing? Even _if_ Jefferson was killed someplace else."

"That's the weirdest thing, nobody heard or saw anything. Everyone stays quiet and acts frightened." Mikey leaned towards his partner, whispering into her ear, "Steph, something's pretty off with this place. The staff wants nothing else than to get rid of us and the kids are afraid as soon as we ask something."

"Hmm…" Steph hummed, now in deep thoughts, "What about the girl?"

A big sigh emerged from Mikey's mouth as his gaze dropped. "The same shit, though she doesn't seem to be scared of us."

"Did anyone already talk to her?"

"Yeah, Jacobs tried-"

"Jacobs?!" the auburn-haired woman blurted out, "You can't let this idiot talk to a girl!"

"Steph, you weren't here and the Cap wanted some answers."

"Hopefully he didn't ruin everything." she said angrily, walking out of the office.

Both threw the sheaths and gloves in a waste bag and headed towards another office, where a policeman stood guard at the door. Inside, sat a teenage-girl with blue hair, wrapped in a blanked.

"Her name's Chloe Elizabeth Price," Mikey began to read from his notepad, "17 years old. She lives in this orphanage since she was a little girl and is described in the files as a loner and troublemaker."

"We were loners, too, Mikey." mentioned Steph, gaze still fixed on the blue-haired girl. "I wanna talk to her."

"The Cap said that we should bring her to the station and question her there."

"Yeah…sure," she huffed, "What's less intimidating than being escorted to the station and being questioned in one of our _cozy_ observation rooms?" Then she gazed at her partner. "No, Mikey, I'm gonna talk to her and you try to get some information from the other kids. I wanna know what's going on here and why this Jefferson-guy had to bite the dust like this. Believe me, this thing's bigger than we think!"

Michael gave her an agreeing nod and made his way to the other kids, while Steph walked slowly into the office, approaching the young girl cautiously.

"Hi there, Chloe…right?" the young woman said softly with a smile as she sat down right across the blue-haired girl, "I'm Detective Stephanie Gingrich, but you can call me Steph."

Emotionlessly, Chloe gazed at the auburn-haired Detective, just shrugging with her shoulders before she broke eye contact and stared into empty space again.

Not unfamiliar with such behavior after such traumatic events, Steph stayed calm and kept on trying to break the ice. "Can I get you something? A coffee or hot chocolate, and maybe a sandwich?"

"How about a cig?" Chloe spoke, giving the Detective another glimpse.

"Uhm…sorry. Non-smoker."

Once more, the bluenette shrugged. "Ugh, fuck it. I'm not allowed to smoke in here anyway. But I'd take the sandwich, though."

As Chloe let her words follow a wry smirk, Steph couldn't do anything but smile right back. "A sandwich it is!" She ordered the officer at the door to bring the girl a sandwich and then focused on her witness again. "Nice hair, by the way!" She added, playing with one of Chloe's stray streaks.

Instantly, the girl's expression darkened again as she swatted Steph's hand away. "Yeah…"

Disappointed about the step backwards, Steph sighed deeply before she spoke again. "Listen, Chloe, I know it sucks, but I need to know what happened here last night."

Chloe's first answer was an annoyed and angry glare, followed by harsh words. "If you really wanna know: Jefferson brought me into his office to get busy with me, I blacked out and that's it. I can't remember shit. I woke up after the cops stuffed me in here. One guy just told me that Jefferson's dead and I just hope that this fucker burns in hell!"

Once more, not surprised by this reaction, Steph calmly analyzed every word the young girl just said with an internal routine, until she stumbled upon something which almost made her wish that she interpreted it wrong. She leaned in, looking deeply into Chloe's blue-eyes with a frown. "What do you mean with: _get busy with you_?"

Remembering last night, and every night with Jefferson before, Chloe's eyes widened; the burning fire of fury replaced by sadness. Her lips trembled as she spoke with a shivering voice and flowing tears. "Why don't you ask _them_? Why don't you ask the others who didn't resist them?" Her voice broke as she turned away and cried in shame and hurt.

Steph Gingrich backed away as realization hit her like a jackhammer. She was on the brink of crying herself as her brain fought against the imagination of what Chloe and the others must've gone through over all those years. The woman with the beanie on her head stood up and took out her phone, dialing her partner's number.

"Mikey, I…I found something out. It…" She sighed in order to fight the need to sob.

[Mikey]: Yeah, me too. One of the girls just told me.

Her grip on the phone tightened as anger took over and she almost hissed her words with gritted teeth. "I want this place under a complete lockdown. Nobody gets in or out!"

[Mikey]: Got it! Should I tell the Cap or…

"Yeah, I'll stay with Chloe and try to calm her down. She must've been through hell."

[Mikey]: Okay. This turned into a real big pile of shit.

"You name it."

[Mikey]: I'll come over as soon as the Cap got the info.

"Okay. See ya in a jiff!"

Steph put away her phone again and breathed in deeply. Chloe had stopped crying and was gazing into empty space again. Slowly, she approached the young girl once more, sat down and touched her shoulder softly. "Chloe," she said soothingly, "It's over now. We'll take care that these…these fuckers get what they deserve, promised! Did they…I'm sorry that I have to ask this, but…did they do anything to you?"

With red-cried, watery eyes, Chloe looked at Steph. Although she knew that the police would investigate the whole case and bring justice to these monsters, the blue-haired girl felt empty and hopeless; not in the mood to talk about any of this. But she wanted to help; wanted to take care that at least Stacy would never become a victim. So, she mustered all her strength and told Detective Gingrich about her injuries; how they took girl after girl, night after night. Told her how they lived in constant fear.

Steph typed every bit of information in her phone, wiping away a tear from time to time. "And…uhm…last night? Did he…?" she asked, after Chloe had finished her testimony.

"I…I don't know. And I…I think I don't wanna know."

With a reassuring squeeze on her shoulder, Steph leaned forwards and gave Chloe a warm smile. "Thanks, Chloe! You are so brave! With your testimony alone we'll have those bastards by their balls!"

Both of them exchanged a long gaze, until Mikey entered and Steph had to focus on him.

"Hey Steph, the Cap wants to talk to you!"

"Sure."

"Steph," Chloe spoke, making the auburn-haired woman to look at her, "Wh-what will happen to us?"

"Well…I think they'll stick you kids into other orphanages. But for the time being you'll have to stay here…under police protection, of course."

"I-I don't wanna stay here anymore. This place creeps the shit out of me. I'd rather sleep on the streets than spending another night in this fucking shithole!"

For a long time they just looked at each other. Who could blame her after everything that had happened; after everything that they've done to her? It was only understandable that Chloe wanted to get away; didn't want to stay here. But what was the alternative? She was still 17 and needed a legal guardian. That was the law. But who would take in a 17 years old girl?

' _I would.'_ thought Steph, _'She really doesn't deserve to stay here, and maybe she needs a bit nerdy lifestyle.'_

"Listen, Chloe, I'll figure something out, okay? You stay here, eat your sandwich and I'll be back in a jiff."

Receiving a determinant nod by Chloe, Steph left the room and approached her Captain. "You wanted to see me, Cap."

"This whole thing turned into a fucking mess!" he hissed, handing the Detective his smartphone, where the latest News were displayed. "It's already all over the media. More and more reporters are waiting outside. The Mayor and the Governor want some answers. Answers I can't give them. Gingrich!" he blurted, "You and North need to solve this case as fast as possible. Do what you have to do, I don't care, but we need to wrap this up quickly or they'll serve us our badges for lunch."

"Well, then we better get started," Steph answered, giving the Captain his phone back, "And…uhm…I kinda have a first…request that is way off the books."

"Name it!"

"Chloe…the witness…I wanna take her in. At least for some time."

"What?! Are you crazy? She's a 17-year-old girl under the protection of the state…"

"Which has failed!" she interrupted him, "This poor girl's traumatized and needs someone she can trust. I already made good progress and think that this could be destroyed again, if we just let her stay here. Please, Cap. She's been through enough and needs a break."

"Fine," the Captain sighed after some moments, "I'll take care of the paperwork. But I want to see you both tomorrow at the station for questioning and you give me a daily report about her condition!"

"Thanks, Cap!" she replied with a wide smile, already making her way to Chloe again, "I'm gonna bring her to the hospital first, for a check-up and then to my apartment."

"Don't let me regret it, Gingrich!" the Captain yelled after her.

Before Steph could bring Chloe the news, Mikey blocked the door, gazing at his partner sternly. "I hope you're doing this for her and not for yourself."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Steph said with a frown, clearly not liking where this conversation was going.

"Breakups can be pretty bad and hurtful, but using others as a compensation won't heal any wounds. Please, Steph," he spoke, now stepping aside, "Keep it professional!"

Understanding the well meant advise of her partner and close friend, Steph nodded and touched his arm softly, giving him a wry smile and vise versa.

"C'mon, Chloe. Time to get you dressed, packed and ready to leave!"

The bluenette looked at Steph with furrowed eyebrows upon being slightly confused. "Where are we going?"

"My place." answered Steph nonchalantly with a big smile as she grabbed Chloe's hand and pulled her on her feet.

With eyes wide open in an almost overwhelming surprise, the young girl gazed at the woman, her lips trembling. "Y-your place?! D-does that mean…"

"That I adopted you?" she completed her question, "Sadly, no. But I'll take you in until we found a suitable and safe home for you."

Out of relief, Chloe jumped forward and wrapped her arms around Steph. "Thank you!" she whispered with a brittle voice, tears running down her cheeks. A long wanted wish was about to come true. Chloe would leave this godforsaken place forever. Though she was visiting a private school with the possibility to live in a dorm, the orphanage never allowed her to leave. But now everything was different. She finally had the chance to be free and would've loved to bail right away, until one name came into her mind; one name that changed everything.

"Stacy!" Chloe gasped, breaking the embrace, "Steph, I…I'm sorry, but…I can't go…I…"

"It's okay, Chloe." chimed a girl's voice. Stacy, the 12-year-old girl with the red hair, stood in the doorframe, gazing at Chloe, who didn't waste any second and walked over to the girl, embracing her tightly.

"I won't leave you! I promised." the bluenette whispered back.

Then the younger girl backed away softly, gazing at Chloe with an honest, but also sad smile. "Chloe, I-I'm gonna be fine. The bad people are gone and you deserve to be happy." Both of them looked at each other for some time with watery eyes, until Stacy brushed through Chloe's blue hair. "Wow, I like that new color."

"Y-yeah. Did it secretly last night…y'know, before…"

Chloe's face grimaced as she remembered what happened last night, before she had her black-out. Instantly, Stacy pressed the way taller girl close to her body again, both sniffing and sobbing now.

Seeing this, Steph brushed another emotional tear from the corner of her eye and crossed her arms, while her lips were forming a warm smile. _'Even in a fucking hell like this orphanage there's still light and hope.'_

"Who is she?" the auburn-haired woman asked Mikey, who now stood beside her, smiling as well, but also seemed a bit absent.

"Stacy Miller, 12 years old. Her mother died of cancer and her father is a junky. No other relatives who want to take her in. She was the one who told me about the abuses. And she also told me that Chloe protected her the whole time. She just wanted to see her before she leaves."

Steph looked at her friend for some time, one eyebrow arched, as she realized how Mikey gazed at the girl warmly. "What's up, Mikey? Is everything alright?"

His gaze dropped and he sighed deeply as Mikey North told Steph his thoughts. "Steph…you know that Grace can't get pregnant, and we wish to have a family…"

"You thought about adopting her!"

"Yeah. She'll be alone without Chloe and, so far, we got along pretty good."

"You'd be an awesome dad for her and Grace an awesome mom! Go for it!" she said and turned her sight towards the two hugging girls again, letting some minutes pass. "Y'know, Mikey, we have the chance here of giving these two girls hope and the possibility of a better life. We should use it."

"Yeah," he returned, though instantly his expression darkened a bit, "But what if Chloe is involved in this murder?"

With determination, Steph glanced into her partner's eyes, ready to defend the bluenette girl. "Mikey, you saw the mess. It's just not possible that she could've done this. Believe me, she's absolutely innocent!"


	6. Chapter 5: Expendable

**Chapter 5: Expendable**

5th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon

Prescott-dormitories

"Mmh…Max?" Chloe groaned as she slowly woke up from her tight sleep, already feeling that her girlfriend's warmth was missing. Slowly, she opened her eyes and let her gaze wander to the side of her bed where Max was supposed to lie, but it was empty. With another moan the bluenette sat up. Her chest was still bare and she wore the same clothes than the night before.

"Max?" she now spoke a bit louder, only to recognize that her girlfriend wasn't there.

' _Where is she?'_ the punk-girl thought, _'Did she leave? Or is she just getting us some breakfast?'_

Out of a sudden, the door opened, but before Max, who was only wrapped in Chloe's pirate towel, entered, she yelled at someone in the hall.

"You know what, Taylor? Fuck you! Fuck! You! You stupid cunt!" The brunette girl flipped Taylor the bird, and closed the door with a loud bang. "Ugh, I hate this stupid bitch!" she ranted, walking up and down in fury, "This fucking cunt makes me responsible that the Vortex Party has been canceled, because Vicky was responsible for the organization, but left Blackwell and now I'm supposed to apologize to these fuckers. Can you believe this shit?"

To Max's surprise, she's taken into a tight embrace by Chloe, who instantly pressed her lips on the smaller girl's ones. The bluenette broke the kiss and brushed over her girlfriend's cheek with a wry smile. "A good morning to you too, babe!"

"G-good morning." Max whispered, still entirely stunned as Chloe took a few steps back and gazed at her.

"Wow, my towel hella suites you!"

"Oh…y-yeah…sorry, but I needed a shower and I had no towel…"

"It's fine, Max," Chloe interrupted her with a smile, "As long as I get it back."

"Yeah…sure…" Still a bit absent and lost in thoughts, Max just slipped the towel from her body and reached it to Chloe, whose jaw dropped in an instant. Now realizing that she stood naked in front of her girlfriend, Max gasped and turned around. "Oh my dog, sorry…I-I'm sorry…I…just…ugh!"

The small girl's head turned deep-red and her heart and breathing increased, but it almost stopped as she felt Chloe's soft hands on her stomach as well as her bare chest on her back.

"Say, Maxi," she cooed into her ear, "You wanna continue what we started last night?" Her fingers brushed over the pale skin of her belly and went higher, softly caressing her small breasts.

"Oh Chloe…mmh…!" she moaned softly, turned around and kissed her girlfriend intensively.

Both were already moving towards the bed, while Chloe tried to get rid of her jeans, as someone knocked. At first, the two lovers tried to ignore it, but as Dana's voice chimed through the door, Max just broke the kiss and sighed.

"Max, Chloe, you in there? Open up!"

"Sorry!" Max whispered softly, giving the bluenette another kiss.

"Not your fault. Here," Chloe replied with a wry smile and handed the brunette a wide shirt, "Take my shirt."

Max put on the shirt, which covered every important part, and opened the door. "Hi Dana, 'sup?"

Seeing Max in this oversized shirt; clearly naked under it; and Chloe in the background, just wearing her panties, Dana's eyes widened and it took her some time and an agitated glare by Max to eventually snap out of it. "Uh…Am I disturbing?"

"No," sighed Max cynically, rolling with eyes.

"Yes!" it chimed from behind her as Chloe closed in and flung her arm around Max's shoulder. "Hope it's hella important, 'cause I hate unfinished bidness!"

"Yeah…right…uhm…" stammered Dana Ward as her eyes fixed on Chloe's bare chest. But with a shake of her head, she was finally able to muster her countenance. "Have you two seen Rachel? She's neither in her room nor answering my calls."

Recalling Rachel's and Brooke's betrayal last night, Max got angry again. "Have you already tried Brooke's room? I bet these two are fucking each others brain out right now while I and Chloe have to hold back again, thanks to you! And yes, Stella, I and Chloe wanted to have sex and I know that you're calling your vibrator _Mr. Big_ , now fuck off!" she yelled at a small, slender girl with dark hair, as she was looking at her with an arched eyebrow. If Chloe hadn't pulled Max closer and started to speak, the brunette would've raged some more, but her girlfriend's presence luckily calmed her down.

"Listen, Dana, to make things short: no, we don't know where Rachel is. And we hella don't care. Anything else? No? See ya!" she said rapidly and slammed the door shut before Dana could retort anything. "Dude, I said it once and I'm saying it again: You need to get rid of that job!"

"I know," Max sighed and sat down on the bed, "Sorry for losing it again!"

"No thing, Maximus. And, actually, I'm not that mad about the moodbreaker."

"Why?"

"Because I wanna take my time with you. And that means hours of hot, sweaty sex!"

Max gulped. "H-hours…"

"But…there's one teeny-tiny problem."

"And that would be?"

"I don't have any fucking idea where I should take you for our date."

Now a wide smirk appeared on her face as an idea came into Max's mind how to help Chloe out. "I know the perfect spot!"

* * *

6th August 2016, Portland, Oregon

Steph Gingrich's apartment

With a audible clicking sound the door to Steph Gingrich's apartment was unlocked and swung open.

"Well, that's it. That's my place. C'mon in!" Steph said as she walked in, Chloe following her stat.

The bluenette let her gaze wander around the spacy apartment, her eyes widening with every passing second. "Holy shitballs!" she gasped in awe as she saw the nerdy interior. Collectibles, movie-posters, costumes, comic books and other stuff that turned the place into a nerd-lair.

"I'm glad you like it," remarked Steph with a smirk, putting Chloe's duffle bag on the ground.

"Like it?! This place is like a wet nerdy dream coming true. Just look at this awesome stuff!"

While Chloe instantly browsed through Steph's movie-collection, the auburn-haired woman got rid of her gun, the handcuffs and her badge, placing this stuff on the kitchen counter. "Fell free to rummage through this stuff as much as you want, and if you see something you like to watch, just place it by the TV. I'm gonna get you some sheets for the night." she said and made her way to the bedroom, where she got Chloe some bedlinen, and returned to the living room.

As Steph saw that Chloe had the gun in her hands, she dropped the sheets, darted towards the punky girl and ripped the pistol off her hands. "Hey! Don't ever touch that again!" she yelled, her expression more than dead serious.

"S-sorry!" Chloe stammered, taking some steps back, "I-I never saw a gun before and…"

Out of a sudden, Steph wrapped her arms around Chloe, hugging her intensively. "Please, don't scare me like this again! I was so worried!"

Hearing more worry than anger in Steph's shaky voice, Chloe closed her eyes and whispered in Steph's ear. "I'd never hurt myself, Steph. Sorry for giving you any worries!"

Shaking her head, Steph backed away. "You don't have to be sorry. I left the gun out in the open. It was my fault. I should've known better. Maybe it was a bad idea to take you in."

"No, Steph," Chloe replied, "It was the best idea ever! Everyone fucks up sometimes, and actually, I should've known better, too. I'm just glad to be here with you. Thanks again!"

The auburn-haired woman pulled the beanie off her head and placed it on Chloe's head with a smirk. "No biggie, Chloe. We just have to be cautious with such things in future. And now, I'd say that you take a nice, hot bath while I'm gonna prepare your bed and order us some food. Sounds like a plan?"

"Hell yeah!" Chloe cheered and Steph brought her to the bathroom.

* * *

While she was lying in bed, Steph stared at the ceiling, recalling the last hours. Since her girlfriend had broken up with her a few months ago, the evenings, except the ones she spent with Mikey, had been very lonely, sad and boring.

But today's evening with Chloe had been the best. They had had so much fun. Watching a movie, eating junk food, playing videogames, talking nonsense; things she scarcely had done with her ex-girlfriend.

But recalling these fond events of this evening wasn't the reason that kept her awake. It was this tingling sensation she felt right now. This feeling she always had when she'd watched Chloe. The feeling she felt in her stomach every time she saw that young girl's smile; felt her warmth; smelled her odor. Yes, Steph Gingrich had a crush on Chloe Price, though she knew that she shouldn't.

If Chloe would've been a slight older girl she'd met in a bar or coffee shop, the case would be clear: asking her out for a date a few times, landing in bed with her and hoping for an everlasting relationship. But things were different. Chloe was underage and Steph was her legal guardian for the time being. Let alone that the young woman was investigating a crime, which Chloe was involved in.

' _Keep it professional!'_ she chided herself internally, let out a big sigh and tried to fall asleep. Eventually, the stress of the day took its toll and let drowsiness engulf her body after some time. Only moments away from falling into slumber, Steph's eyes snapped wide open as someone was climbing under her cover, flung an arm around her body and cuddled the young woman tightly. Steph turned her head and her eyes met Chloe's.

"Chloe, wh-what are you doing?" she whispered with a trembling voice, her heartrate and breathing increasing upon this closeness, though she tried to suppress it.

"I-I don't wanna sleep alone, Steph."

Taking a few deep breaths, Steph tried to calm down her body some more and looked at the bluenette with a soft smile. "I-it's okay, Chloe. Of course you can sleep here, if you want to. Just let me get your…"

The young woman was about to get up as Chloe softly touched her cheek and planted a kiss on her lips. Like struck by a lightning, Steph stiffened and remained completely stunned. Her entire being went haywire. While her heart wanted to give in, her head scolded her to keep a distance, which lead to the effect that her body didn't know what to do.

Receiving no resistance, Chloe kept on kissing Steph and shuffled herself even closer to have full body contact. And this was the moment Steph's body didn't listen to her mind anymore and acted on its own.

She returned Chloe's kisses with passion, wrapping her arms around the younger girl and pulled her even closer. But now that she was taking the lead, she actually realized how clumsy Chloe's kisses and touches were. How she became more and more diffident in her doings. Just at this moment it appeared to Steph that Chloe probably had none or at least not much sexual experience. Immediately her mind took over again and told her to stop before making everything worse.

"Chloe…" Steph said with a slight moan, because Chloe was still kissing her wildly, "W-we need to stop. We…we just can't…"

As if she wanted to convince Steph otherwise, Chloe intensified her actions, kissing the woman's neck and let her hands wander around her body.

"Oh Chloe…s-stop it…" Steph moaned, about to give in once more. But she mustn't! Mustering all her willpower, Steph overcame her urges and let her frustration out in a big blast.

"STOP IT!" she yelled, pushing Chloe so hard away that she landed on the floor with a groan. Both looked at each other in shock. Steph because she couldn't believe what she'd just done, and Chloe because she was hurt emotionally.

"Chloe…" Steph spoke softly, trying to reach out for the girl, whose face was now grimaced by emotional pain as she jumped up and ran out of the room. "Chloe, wait!" she called after the bluenette, following her immediately.

The girl had already opened the apartment door a bit as Steph reached her and slammed it shut in front of her nose, blocking it with her body.

"LET ME GO!" Chloe screamed, her red-cried eyes burning with anger.

"No, Chloe! You know I can't let you go."

"Why not? Nobody cares about me anyway, not even you!"

"That's not true, Chloe! I care a lot about you!"

"Oh really? Stop shitting me, Steph and tell me the fucking truth! Why did you take me in?"

Steph knew why she'd taken Chloe in; why she liked her company; but she also had to hide the truth from everyone, because nobody would understand or even tolerate it. "Chloe, I-I can't…" she spoke quietly, embracing her own body.

"Why not, Steph? Why fucking not? Was it pity?"

"Chloe…"

"Did you just feel sorry for me?"

"Chloe, it's complicated…"

"Then just try to explain!"

"I-I can't." Steph said with a trembling voice, tears dripping down her face.

"Y-you can't explain? You can't fucking explain?" the bluenette blurted out, followed by a scoff, "Y'know what, Steph? Fuck you! Now get out of my fucking way!"

"I can't." repeated Steph, hugging herself even stronger.

"Why, Steph? Why are you doing this? Why are you trying to keep me here?"

"BECAUSE I HAVE FEELINGS FOR YOU!" Steph shouted as she had to release the pressure. For some moments Chloe and Steph just gazed at each other, not saying one word. Only Chloe's following sobs were breaking the silence.

With slow steps, Steph approached the crying girl and took her into a tight, comforting hug. While she was brushing through her blue hair, Steph whispered softly into Chloe's ear. "Please don't go, Chloe! I need you and I promise you that we're gonna make this work, okay! I'll take care that you can stay with me until you're 18, first thing in the morning. After you're old enough, you can decide for your own where you wanna stay." She broke the contact, looked at Chloe with a soft smile and then placed another kiss on her lips. "Chloe, I know it's crazy and against every rule in the books and if someone finds out I'm gonna be in a lot of trouble, but…do you wanna be my girlfriend?"

Once more, Chloe sobbed intensively, but this time out of relieve. She pressed her head onto Steph's chest and nodded.

* * *

5th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon

Arcadia Bay Harbor

The vast room of the industry building at the almost entirely abandoned harbor was filled with a lot of technical equipment. Large displays, servers, computers, and everything else you need to run a full covered operation.

The whole personal was sitting on rowed chairs in front of a big screen, which came to life as Colonel Sanders, dressed in a camouflage combat suit, entered.

A young Lieutenant stood up straight and yelled: "'ten hut!", making everyone else jump up and salute to the Colonel, who took position in front of the crowd.

"At ease!" he said and the soldiers sat down again. He took a remote, pressed a button and a picture of a blue-haired girl along with some data appeared on the screen. "Alright, men, listen up! Yesterday, at 2230 hours, our satellites picked up an outburst of blue _Omega-Waves_ right in the town's center. The patterns matched the outburst we received from Portland and earlier that day from Blackwell Academy. By pinpointing the origin of the signal and cross-referencing the video footage of some local stores nearby, we were able to confirm that this girl-" he pointed with a laser at bluenette's picture, "Is our target."

Most of the soldiers now opened their notebooks and started to write down important information.

"Her name is Chloe Elizabeth Price, 18 years old and a student at the local private school. Our mission is to take her into custody and bring her to our research facility."

"That shouldn't be that hard. So why the big party here?" chimed a voice of a young soldier from within the crowd.

With another click of the button, Sander's let a new set of pictures appear on the screen, showing bloodied, dismembered bodies. Sometimes it was even hard to tell if the pile of blood and bones had been a human being once. "This girl already killed 6 of our men on her own, plus one civilian. She's extremely dangerous and a threat for every American citizen."

"Then why don't we just kill her?" ask another soldier.

"Her powers are far beyond anything humanity ever came across. Since we don't know if she's the only one, we need to get as much information as possible. Especially how to eliminate her kind, or – in a best case scenario – how to use their abilities for our own advantage."

"Is she some kind of an _X-Men_ mutant? How does her power work?"

Sanders eyes fixed on an older man in a suit on the far end of the room, who shook his head. "There are some theories about her being, but they're classified, soldier! All that we know is that she uses the new discovered _Omega-Energy_. _Omega-Energy_ , as you've already read in your first mission briefings, is the energy that seems to run our entire universe."

The image on the screen changed once more, now picturing a map of Arcadia Bay.

"Alright, let's talk about how the show's supposed go down. From a source we know that our target will have a date tonight with this girl." Another picture of a freckled girl with chin-long brown hair appeared. "Her name is Maxine Caulfield, 18 years old, also a student and additionally the student's council at Blackwell Academy."

"Cute girl!" a soldier remarked with a whistle.

"And a dyke." Mentioned another one.

"Discipline!" blurted the Colonel, "This may be no military operation, but we're still soldiers, so keep it fucking professional!" He took a deep breath, cursed internally and continued the briefing. "Anyway, we are on American soil and need to keep a low profile here. This means, avoiding the public at all cost and no unnecessary casualties! In and out, that's it."

"We don't know where the date will take place, but we know where they will go after that. Two locations," He pointed at Blackwell and Max's house, "4 possible scenarios, and we have no fucking idea which one will occur, but only have this one chance or else we'll draw too much attention and alarm the target. Bottom-line: we'll have to improvise from the start. This means that everyone will be on standby the whole time, no exceptions. As soon as we know what they're gonna do, we'll strike and apprehend the target. Best case scenario: we'll catch her alone. Worst case: we have to take care of the other girl. And with taking care I mean stun, not killing her. Yes, Stransky, I'm looking at you! Before I'll go into the details for every single team, are there any questions so far?"

"Why here? Why didn't we take care of this little cunt in Portland?" said a man with blonde hair, dressed in a black combat suit.

"Because it had already cost us 6 men, Mr. Stransky!" Mr. Wilcock's voice chimed through the hall as he closed in, followed by Sean Prescott. He took the remote from Colonel Sanders and flicked back to the first image of the presentation. "Don't be fooled by her innocent appearance. This girl killed two of our teams in merely seconds in a cruel way. She's vicious, she's merciless, and needs to be neutralized. Sadly, we underestimated her in Portland and she managed to disappear, until she arrived here. We don't know what drove her to Arcadia Bay, but we need to end this here and now!"

With a step forward Sanders took over again. "The extraction team will get these new _Taser-bullets_ and will ONLY use them, no need for lethal force whatsoever. Has everybody understood?"

"Sir, yes, Sir!"

* * *

11th March 2017, Portland, Oregon

Steph Gingrich's apartment

"Where's my birthday girl?" chimed Steph Gingrich's voice throughout the apartment as she came home from work.

"Kitchen!" answered Chloe and Steph instantly made her way there after getting rid of her shoes. She approached the bluenette, who was preparing some snacks, from behind and flung her arms around Chloe's waist while lying her head on her shoulder.

"Happy birthday, young one! Already preparing everything for tonight?"

"Yup, hella preparing!" Chloe put down the knife, turned around and let her lips collide with Steph's for a long and intimate kiss, which both broke with some reluctance. "How was work!"

Steph sighed, opened the fridge and took out a can of orange juice and drank from it. "You know, always the same: dead bodies everywhere. It still pisses me off that the FBI took over your case."

"Well, fucking and living with the main suspect doesn't get you any plus points." Chloe remarked with a wry, mischievous smirk, receiving a soft push by Steph.

"You're not a suspect anymore, Chloe. Everyone agrees that you were drugged and left there for some fucked up satanic ritual." She took one last sip from the can, placed it on the counter and approached her loved one with slow steps as she spoke with a tantalizing voice. "Say, my little punk-girl, I wanna take a hot shower before the party, care to join?"

"Y-yeah!" exhaled Chloe nervously and gulped.

Slowly, Steph placed her equipment on the counter, knowing that Chloe would never touch it again without her permission, while the young girl stripped off her beanie. And once more they both kissed intensively, making their way to the bathroom. With every step another garment dropped to the floor until both were entirely naked, only breaking the contact for a short moment to turn on the shower.

"C'mon, young one, show me what you've learned!" cooed Steph into Chloe's ear, who, however, backed away with another smirk.

"Nu-uh, I'm the birthday girl, I'll _come_ first!"

Drawing hot lines over Chloe's wet body with her index finger in a slow motion, Steph closed in again with a wry smile on her lips. "So you wanna _come_ first?" she spoke seductively, "And how do you wanna come?"

Her boldness entirely gone and not moving a limb, Chloe gulped as her older and way more experienced girlfriend started to let her hands wander around her body from top to bottom, stopping now and then when she'd reached her breasts or her butt. On purpose she avoided Chloe's center in order to bring the now 18 years old girl to the edge.

The bluenette's moaning grew louder and louder with every second. Still, Steph didn't even bother to give her the much needed massage of her nether regions, so that she was already about to do it herself, but was stopped by Steph immediately.

"Uh-uh," she said with a warm smile, "Be patient!"

After a few more strokes over Chloe's body, Steph slowly began to let her tongue lick over almost every inch of the young girl's soft skin, nearly driving her insane. As, once more, she left out her sensitive spot, Chloe grabbed Steph's head and pressed it against her crotch. With a giggle, the auburn-haired woman complied and gave her girlfriend the so much wanted massage.

What followed was the most intensive and quickest orgasm Chloe had ever felt. She groaned out every bit of lust that had piled up, and if Steph hadn't helped her to slowly slide down the shower's wall, Chloe would've just crumbled to the ground.

Almost hyperventilating, the bluenette sat on the floor of the shower. It took her blanked mind a while to boot up again. As she opened her eyes slowly, she gazed at a warm smiling Steph, who was sitting on the ground, too, softly brushing over Chloe thighs.

"So, how was it?" she asked, leaning in for a soft kiss.

"Fucking…amazeballs!" Chloe panted, barely able to form a smirk, "Your turn!"

Pressing her hand on her girlfriends chest, Steph held her down, giving the bluenette another kiss. "Later. We better hurry up or else Mikey, Grace and Stacy will be standing in front of our door while we're still busy."

"But…"

"Don't worry, young one! I'll safe it for after the party, and then…" she leaned forward, kissing Chloe so intense that it almost hurt to break it again, "We'll take all the time we want. I love you, Chloe"

"I love you, too!"

* * *

5th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon

The Caulfield's house

"Let's see…35…37…ah, bingo! 39 Pine Road," Chloe spoke to herself as she checked one last time her position on the smartphone's map with the house in front of her. Nodding satisfied that this seemed to be the right place, the bluenette literally jumped over the lawn to the front door and pushed the button for the bell. Shifting her weight from one foot to another, nervously, Chloe waited for the door to open, still hoping that she got the right house.

It clicked and the door swung open, a wide smiling Max greeting her. Both collided instantly for a long kiss, happy to be together again.

Slowly, the two girls parted and Chloe took a step back to gaze at Max's appearance. "Damn, babe, lookin' hot!" she remarked with a smile, because this time Max wore a short, black skirt and tights, paired with a blue button shirt and a leather jacket.

"Thanks, Chlo! But you're looking hella hot, too!"

Instead of her common clothes, Chloe wore a normal blue jeans and a wide, red and black checkered button shirt over a black top.

Max turned around, grabbed two helmets and yelled one last "Later, mom!" into the house before she closed the door and walked to the garage, Chloe following her. "Here!" she said to the bluenette, who arched an eyebrow as she gazed at the helmet she'd received.

"Are we gonna drive with a scooter to our date?"

Having the handle of the garage gate in her hand, Max stopped in her doing and glared at Chloe with a scrunched up nose. "A scooter?! What am I? Fifteen and in a desperate need of independent motorized transportation? Nope…" With a wide smirk she opened the gate, crossing her arms as she revealed their vehicle, "I prefer four wheels and more horsepower!"

Chloe's jaw dropped in unbelief as she looked at the ATV in front of them. "D-dude, you own an ATV?"

"Actually…no. It's my dad's, but I'm allowed to use it from time to time."

"Okay, Caulfield, you've hereby earned the permanent pole position on my list of badassery!"

After giving Chloe a peck on the cheek, Max put on her helmet and took her place on the vehicle. "C'mon, Chlo. We need to get going!" she said with a dampened voice, starting the ATV's engine.

Without wasting another second, Chloe put in her helmet, too, and jumped onto the seat right behind Max. Both cheered loudly as the smaller girl punched the gas, letting them drive to their destination with high speed.

* * *

Arcadia Bay cliffs

The fresh and salty air blew through the now open visor of Chloe's helmet as Max parked the ATV right at the beach. She closed her eyes and took a deep inhale, already feeling some sort of relaxation. Being at the ocean had always calmed her down. On her way to Arcadia Bay, Chloe had spent several nights close to the sea.

She took off her helmet to let the sound of the crushing waves reach her ears and the breeze play with her bangs. It was a quiet moment, only broken by the clicking sound of Max's instant camera. Chloe instantly shifted her gaze towards her girlfriend and gave her a wry smile.

"You're so beautiful!" mentioned Max in awe as she looked at the picture, handing it to Chloe.

"Said the most adorable girl in the world," replied the punky girl as she took the photo to look at it, "Holy shitballs, you're a freakin' talent!"

"N-nah, I'm not that good."

"Don't sell yourself shorter than you already are!"

"Hey! No fair!" blurted Max, giving Chloe's shoulder a soft push.

Snickering quietly, the punk-girl wrapped her arms around Max and gave her a kiss. "Just kidding, I like you the way you are!"

"You're such a dork…sometimes!"

"Yeah, but I can be bitchy, too."

"C'mon," said Max with a smile, breaking the hug, "Let's keep going and spare some mush for our date."

The smaller girl walked over to the transportation box on the back of the ATV and opened it, revealing a big backpack and a basket.

"Picnic on the beach?" asked Chloe as Max handed her the pack.

"Close, but no," the brunette replied, locking the box again, "Too classy, too cliché, and…" then she pointed with her finger to the lighthouse at the top if the nearby cliffs. "I rather prefer the high ground."

Following Max's finger, Chloe raised her eyebrows. "Can't we just drive up there?"

"Nope, the roads are blocked for vehicles. Now c'mon, lazybones, just a little bit hiking and we're there."

"Easy to say for you, 'cause you don't have to schlepp this hella heavy backpack up there."

With slow steps, Max came closer and gave Chloe a long and intensive kiss, which made both girls moan softly as their tongues swirled around each other. "You'll be generously rewarded, promised!" she spoke with a soft smile, brushing with her hand over Chloe's cheek.

"Then let's get going!" the bluenette said with a wide grin and both began their ascend to the lighthouse.

* * *

12th March 2017, Portland, Oregon

Steph Gingrich's apartment

It was way past midnight, maybe 2 or 3 in the morning. Steph was already in a tight slumber, while Chloe was still fully awake, gazing at the ceiling with a soft smile as she recalled last evening.

' _This birthday has been the shit! I can't remember having so much fun my entire life. Playing D 'n' D, Videogames, just talkin' nonsense and fooling around. And Stacy…she's actually happy…like I am. Way to happy to sleep right now.'_

Chloe turned her head, looked into the peaceful face of her girlfriend and gave her a peck on her forehead.

"Thanks, Steph, for everything!" she whispered, cautiously freed herself from Steph's arm that was draped over her naked body and stood up.

Only putting over one of her oversized shirts, Chloe made her way to the kitchen and started to make herself some food. Suddenly, a pair of arms embraced her body, accompanied by some kisses on her neck.

"Can't sleep, young one?" chimed Steph's drowsy voice from behind, sending the warm feeling of joy and love through Chloe's body.

"Mh-mh," she hummed with a smile, enjoying the closeness.

"Nightmares?"

The young girl now turned around, placed a kiss onto her girlfriend's lips while some tears rolled down her cheeks. "No, just too much love and joy! Thanks, Steph!"

"I'm glad that you're happy…that I make you happy!" Their lips softly collide once more for some time. It was a kiss of deep love for each other. "I love you, Chloe!"

"I love you, too, Steph!"

"I'm gonna hit the toilet and then go back to bed, okay?" the auburn-haired woman said, gave Chloe another peck on the cheek and went to the bathroom.

Humming one of her favorite songs, Chloe cleaned up the kitchen, took the plate with her sandwiches and a glass of water, and walked over to the couch.

She was half-way there as the front door was kicked open and three masked men, all of them dressed in black combat-suites and armed to the teeth entered the apartment. Completely startled and overwhelmed, Chloe shrieked and dropped the food. Before she was able to move again, one of the armed men had taken the young girl into a tight grip and pushed her to the ground, binding her hands behind her back.

"I got the target!" he spoke, hurtfully pulling the bluenette to her feet again.

They were about to drag Chloe out of the apartment as she heard Steph's voice yelling at them. "Drop the guns and let her go, assholes!"

For a short moment, Chloe saw Steph standing there, wearing a bathrobe, gun in her hands and aiming at the attackers, until a whipping sound chimed through the apartment and Chloe's girlfriend went down, screaming in agony as she held her right arm while the pistol hit the ground.

"STEPH!" Chloe screamed, squirming in the grasp of her captor, but to no avail.

Without wasting a second, one of the armed guys approached the wounded and whining woman, his machine pistol still aimed at her. He kicked the gun away and seemed to wait for further orders. "Sir?"

"Expendable. No witnesses!" said the third man plainly and another silenced shot sounded.

With horror Chloe had to watch how Steph's body went limp and her groaning stopped after the bullet had penetrated her skull. Realizing that Stephanie Gingrich; her girlfriend; the person who gave her hope and love, was dead, Chloe began to sob heavily, tears now flowing in a constant stream. The pain of loss and sorrow rushed through her entire body in merely milliseconds and made her despair. She wanted to scream; wanted to lay down and die; but instead a dark vail covered her sight and darkness engulfed her mind. It was a familiar feeling, because she experienced it before. And before everything went dark she somehow knew that more blood was going to be shed tonight.

"Exfiltrate!" ordered the third man, already making his way to the door.

Meanwhile, Chloe had stopped crying, her head down and her blue hair glowing. The man who was holding the girl tried to move her, but as much as he pulled, she didn't budge an inch.

"What the…" he began, but was cut off mid-sentence as his head imploded into a mash of blood, brain, hair, fabric and skull. His corpse hit the ground while Chloe just stood there, her hands clenched into fists, breaking the bonds, and her voice distorted, quiet and threatening.

"You killed her," she spoke, raised her sight and gazed with blue glowing eyes at Steph's murderer, who hissed a curse and was about to lift his gun to shoot Chloe. He hadn't even had the chance to place a shot as his body flew against the wall behind him with such force that it was literally pulverized, ending up in a cloud of cinderblock, blood, flesh and bones. Only one man remained, his voice dripping with panic.

"This is _Echo Tango Leader_ , she's awake. Two men down! I repeat, two…"

Now trying to take a shot at the girl, too, while he spoke, the gun together with his hands got ripped away. Screaming in agony and horror, the masked man gazed at his arms, not realizing that he was already floating above the ground.

With slow steps Chloe closed in, her expression emotionless, yet still radiating grief. "Why?" she whispered, "Why did you do that? Who sent you?" But she received no answer and therefore ended the still screaming man's agony by ripping his body into pieces, scattering them over the entire room.

Once more, darkness vailed Chloe's mind, sending her into a soothing unconsciousness.

* * *

5th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon

The Lighthouse

Reaching the lighthouse atop the cliffs hadn't been as hard as Chloe would've expected. It had taken the girls less than 20 minutes to reach their destination. During the hike they both talked a lot about their former schools and how they _survived_. To Max's surprise, like her, Chloe had been constantly bullied. But in contrast to the brunette, she just never gave a fuck about it.

Right after they had arrived, Max went into the woods to gather some firewood for the existing fireplace, while Chloe unpacked the backpack.

' _Let's see…some dishes, cutlery, wine, paper towels, a blanket…damn, seems like Max thought about everything. Telling me that this isn't the first time she's doing this.'_

With a happy smile on her face, Max returned to the fireplace and put down the collected wood. "Can you please take care of the fire? I wanna take some shots of the sundown."

"Sure thing, babe!" Chloe answered, already piling up the twigs and branches while Max grabbed her camera and walked over to the edge of the cliffs. Taking one last peek over her shoulder to see if her girlfriend wasn't looking in her direction, Chloe focused on the fireplace. Her hair and eyes faintly glowed as a small fire emerged between the stock, igniting it instantly.

"Wowser, you must've been some kind of a girl scout to light up a campfire that fast, 'cause it always takes me hours to get one of these started." Max's voice suddenly chimed from behind, startling the bluenette.

"Geez, Maximus, you almost scared the shit out of me!"

"Jumpy?" the brunette mocked.

"No," Chloe replied bluntly, stood up and pulled Max closer, "I told you I'm very cautious. And now," she said with a fawning voice, moving her head closer, "TICKLE ATTACK!" she yelled, tickling Max, who burst out into loud laughter, squirming in Chloe's tight hold.

"Ch-Chloe…sto…stop!"

Like Max had given her an order, Chloe stopped the treatment, pulled the brunette closer again and placed a long kiss on her lips.

"See," she then spoke with a wry smirk, "Always be cautious!"

"No," Max replied softly with a brush over her girlfriend's cheek, "Because I'll always trust you. Now c'mon, let's eat!"

* * *

12th March 2017, Portland, Oregon

Mikey North's house

Epic music, chiming from a smartphone, broke the silence in Mikey and Grace North's bedroom.

"Mmmh…Mikey…" Grace, Mikey's wife, groaned drowsily, patting her husband's arm.

"What?" he mumbled into the pillow, in which he'd burrowed his head.

"Your stupid phone's ringing."

Letting out a deep sigh, Mikey tried to reach for his phone on the nightstand aimlessly, until he found the rectangular, flat object. The display came to life, blinding the young man as he glanced at it. Seeing that it was 4 in the morning and Steph's ID he sighed once more, almost awaiting it to be an emergency at the PD, and took the call.

"Hey Steph…'sup?"

[Chloe]: (sobbing, her voice trembling) Mikey…

Hearing that Chloe was crying, Mikey instantly sat up straight, now fully awake. "Chloe?! What's wrong? Are you crying?"

[Chloe]: She's dead…th-they killed her…

"Wait, what? Chloe, who's dead? Where's Steph? Chloe?"

Receiving only a constant sobbing by Chloe, Mikey jumped out of bed and began to put on some pants and a jacket over his pajama.

"Honey, what's wrong?" asked Grace with concern, her eyes following her husband as he was opening the safe which was containing his gun.

"It's Chloe. She's crying and said that someone was killed. I-I need to check it out."

"Ugh," groaned his wife, letting herself fall back onto the mattress, "Jeez, Mikey, it's probably just another prank. I bet these two got drunk right after we left and are now fooling around with you."

"And what if not?" he returned with a serious tone and a frown, "Listen, I'm just gonna check it out, and if it was another prank I'll go all _Duurgaron_ on those two and will be back in a jiff."

Grace let out a big sigh, waved with her hand and turned around to continue her sleep. "Just be careful, okay!"

A thousand possible scenarios rushed through Mikey North's mind as he drove through Portland. Luckily, the streets were almost empty at this time of night so that he reached the apartment building in 20 minutes. He parked the car and went straight for the front door. He hadn't even reached for the building's security guard's bell, as Mikey realized that something was wrong.

Despite that it was night, the door was unlocked and a crack open, the guard nowhere to be seen. Cautiously, Mikey opened the door and peeked inside, his hand already reaching for his still holstered gun. The lobby and the security counter were empty, no person to be seen. "Hello?" he shouted, after taking another look around, but nobody answered. It was an eerie silence that let Mikey's arm hair stand up while a shiver went over his spine. He drew his gun on instinct, like he somehow knew that trouble was ahead.

"Damn!" Mikey cursed silently as he called the elevator, only to find out that it was stuck somewhere. Still not letting his guard down, he went to the staircase and made his way to Steph's floor in a fast pace. As he was approaching Chloe's and Steph's apartment, Mikey slowed down. The door was open and damaged, everything was still quiet. He leaned against the wall and readied his gun, trying to remember his training at the academy.

He took one last deep breath and entered the apartment, gun up and ready, but as he saw at the horrifying scenery, he just froze. "Holy shit!" he gasped, letting his sight wander around the bloody mess. As his gaze fell upon Chloe, who was sitting on the ground with her head down, Mikey gasped and just jumped towards her.

"Chloe! Wh-what happened here?"

"They killed her," was Chloe's whispered answer. As she finally looked up, Michael looked into a pair of red-cried, sorrow-filled eyes. "They just came in…took me…and…" Her eyes oncemore filling with tears, Chloe had to muster every bit of emotional strength to continue. "Steph tried to help, but…" And then, she lost her composure, crying out her last words. "They just shot her!"

For as long as Chloe cried, Mikey took her into a tight embrace, her words chiming in his ears again and again. Only after the bluenette had calmed down enough, Mikey broke the hug. "Listen, Chloe, I'm gonna call the PD and get some men here." he said, receiving a faint nod from the girl.

He took out his phone, but before he dialed a number, Mikey approached Steph's body with slow steps. If it weren't for the blood, the hole in her skull and her pale skin, Steph would've seemed to be asleep. His lips were trembling while big droplets were running down his face. Knowing that he wasn't able to hold his composure any longer, Mikey speed-dialed a number. And as he spoke into the phone, his trembling, dull voice almost failed him several times.

"Cap, it's North. I-I need an entire team at Detective Gingrich's apartment…She's…she's dead…Chloe's fine, considering the circumstances…Probably three suspects dead…Bits and pieces…Yes, Cap. In 15 minutes, got it."

After terminating the call, Mikey walked over to Chloe again and sat down beside her. Both flung their arms around each other and began to cry, mourning the loss of a very close friend and beloved person.

* * *

5th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon

The Lighthouse

Arm in arm, Max and Chloe lied on the blanked, gazing at the stars above them. Except from the occasional cracking of the dying fire's ember and the sound of crushing waves at the bottom of the cliffs it was completely silent.

"I love the stars, y'know," Chloe suddenly spoke, "They're so beautiful and seem to be in arms reach, yet they're so far away."

"Wowser, that was sooo romantic and kinda poetic, Chlo."

"Max?" she asked a moment later, making the brunette to look at her, "Can I tell you a secret?"

"Sure." Max answered, giving her girlfriend's hand a soft squeeze.

"In my dreams, I've actually visited them. I-I mean not exactly these stars, 'cause some of 'em are already dead, but others. Far away stars and planets on the other side of the Galaxy. I'm drawing them in my pictures. The landscapes, flora and fauna, huge cities of unknown architecture. It all pops up in my mind in such detail like I've really been there." She let out a big sigh, shifting her gaze away from Max's blue eyes. "I know, I'm a lost case, ready for the looney bin."

But Max softly touched the bluenette's cheek, making her turn her head back. "No, Chloe, you're not insane. You know how often I dreamt to finally leave this planet? To be free among the stars, enjoying their beauty. You're right, they actually are out of reach and probably even dead, but you're not. I look in your eyes and see exactly the same elegance; the same…greatness and power. You're unique, Chloe, and I'm just sooo happy that we've found each other! For once, destiny was in our favor!"

She leaned in and their lips meat. Chloe wrapped her arms around Max's neck and pulled her even closer. With every passing second, their kisses grew more intense, letting them both moan softly. Max pressed her body even closer to Chloe's and broke the kiss only to whisper 4 words: "I want you, Chloe!"

The punk-girl's reply was another kiss and a pull that let Max climb atop her girlfriend, intensifying their contact. Both wanted it and if a sudden cracking of the underwood hadn't startled them, they would've done more.

* * *

12th March 2017, Portland, Oregon

Steph Gingrich's apartment

Loud clicks and bright flashes filled the entire apartment as the officers of the forensic department made shot after shot from the bloodbath.

"Goddammit!" cursed Captain Hayes as he witnessed how Steph Gingrich's body bag was zipped close and brought away. "What the hell happened here?" he added, glimpsing at Michael North, who stood there in silence, caught in deep thoughts.

"I don't know, Cap." he answered with a dull voice, "But whoever these fuckers were, they wanted Chloe. Steph got in their way and they killed her and then…" Mikey let out a big sigh, looking at his captain with determination, "Damn, it's like in the orphanage. Someone came in here, grounded these assholes, saved Chloe and left again."

"Hmm, but why the girl? You think these were some traffickers, who wanted to kidnap and sell her?"

"No," the Detective said, approaching the body of the man with no head, "Just look at their equipment, Cap. Silenced H&K MP7, the latest 1911 model, NVGs, tactical vests, grenades, high-end radios…everything state of the art tech. These guys were too well equipped to be just some traffickers, who wanted to kidnap a girl."

"Then what are you suggesting, North? That our government wanted to seize her?"

"I don't know, but I'm gonna find out and hunt these fuckers down! And when I'm done with them, I'm gonna find out who shredded them into pieces!"

Hayes exhaled deeply as his gaze dropped. "I'm afraid this won't happen," he said, earning a frown by Mikey.

"What do you mean?"

"The FBI is taking over the case right away. Since Gingrich was our Detective and friend, they see us biased. Besides that they're already investigating the Jefferson-case."

"This is bullshit!" yelled Mikey, making everyone in this room to look at him, "You know as well as I do that they've got zip, nothing!"

"Mikey," said the Captain, resting his hand soothingly of Michael North's shoulder, "I know how you feel. I already lost a partner and friend, too. Steph was like a sister to you and god knows that you want to get even, but…right now, it's the FBI's show. I suggest that you take the girl and go home. Take some days off. Get your head clear again. Okay?"

Mikey just ripped his shoulder from Hayes' touch and walked over to Chloe without another word, helping the poor girl packing some needed stuff before they would leave.

* * *

Portland Streets

Chloe hadn't said one word since Mikey had found her in Steph's apartment, so that the drive to his house was accompanied by pure silence. But neither did Mikey blame nor pressure the young girl. She's been through so much that it was merely a miracle that she wasn't entirely insane already.

They were only 5 minutes away from the North's house as Chloe's voice suddenly broke the quietness. "Mikey, please stop the car," she spoke calmly, her gaze fixed on her lap.

Fearing that Chloe might have become sick, Mikey did what he was told and stopped the car, looking worried at his friend. "What's wrong, Chloe?"

"I need to go away, Mikey. You're all in danger as long as I'm around."

"Chloe," Mikey said with a sigh, shaking his head, "I can't do this. Someone is after you and…dammit Chloe, if I let you go all by yourself, then they will get you and I won't let this happen!"

Out of a sudden, Chloe turned her head, her eyes burning with fury instead of sadness. "You saw what they did to Steph. Do you think they would stop because you have a wife and a kid, huh?"

Her words were seeping into his mind, telling Mikey that Chloe was right; that he was about to endanger his family if he would take her in. He averted her gaze, still not wanting to agree to the bluenette's idea. "I can take you to a safe location. Put you under the full protection of the state. False ID and everything."

"It won't work, Mikey, and you know it!" Chloe simply replied, making him glimpsing in her eyes once more.

"And how would you know?"

"You said it yourself. These guys were more than just some fucking thugs. And what if they come for you to find out where I am?"

"And you think that you'd have a bigger chance on your own?"

"No, but…I just don't want anybody to get hurt for me again. Especially not you, Grace and Stacy. Mikey, please, let me go. Let me get as far away from you folks as possible. Something inside tells me that this is the right thing to do. I'm 18 now. I can decide for my own. I'll go under the radar. I'll vanish. You folks will be safe, 'cause you'll never know where the fuck I am."

Some time passed by until Mikey decided to give a reply. "Lemme guess. There's nothing I can do or say to stop you from doing this?" he said, and as Mikey saw the determination in Chloe's eyes, he knew that every try to convince her otherwise was doomed to fail. With a deep sigh he reached inside his pocket, brought forth his wallet and handed Chloe a plastic card, who looked at it with awe. "Take this. It's unlimited, brand-new and never been used before. I won't report it stolen and I will never undo any transactions, but please…" his eyes met Chloe's once more, but this time with a wry smile, "…keep your outcomes in some reasonable limits, 'cause I still have to feed a family and a house to pay."

Instantly, Chloe jumped out of her seat and gave Mikey a tight hug. "Thanks, Mikey!" she whispered with a sniff, "You're so awesome! I'm gonna miss you guys so much!"

Once again, both cried in each other's arms, knowing that this was a last good bye.

* * *

5th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon

The Lighthouse

Both, Max and Chloe jumped up in order to face what was coming out of the woods.

But as Max now recognized the snickering and the mix of familiar voices that she and her girlfriend hadn't realized during their make out session, she groaned and rolled with her eyes. "You gotta be fucking shitting me!"

From the woods, coming up the trail, emerged a group of partying and obviously drunk teenagers, lead by Courtney and Taylor, who stopped immediately as they saw Max and Chloe.

"Ugh, isn't there one place in this fucking town where I don't have to see your ugly visage?!" said the black-haired girl with a heavy voice.

"Hey stupid, take your tiny tits and this dyke, and fuck off! We're here now!" added Taylor, earning some giggles and high-fives from her friend's.

Her body was shaking and her hands clenched into fists. Chloe knew that Max was a volcano ready to explode. But she wanted this date to be special for Max, relaxing. So, letting her rage would've probably been entertaining, but everything else then calming. Therefore, the bluenette decided to defuse the situation and give her girlfriend a show on the side.

"Well, well," Chloe said with a smirk, taking one step in front of Max, "If it isn't the _Dead Brain Society_ akathe Vortex Club. I heard you guys are sooo…what's the term?...ah, _elite_. But all I see are some drunk and high as fuck assholes, who like bullying other students."

A lot of muttered complains and insults flew against Chloe like a shitstorm, but if anything, it rather amused than insulted her.

"Listen, cunt, we are elite!" hissed Courtney, taking one step towards the taller bluenette.

"Oh really?" she replied with an arched eyebrow and crossed arms, "For being what? Stupid? Fucked-up? I bet I could take it with anyone of ya, liiiiike…you dumb fuck!" Now she pointed at a tall, broad boy, who jumped forward until he was face to face with Chloe, who didn't even flinch but instead grinned sheepishly.

"What did you just call me?" he pressed forth with gritted teeth.

"Do you mean _dumb_ or _fuck_? It's always hard to tell if you jocks understand more than just one word in a row."

"C'mon, Logan, you can take her!" it chimed from the crowd.

"Listen, bitch, I don't care if you're a girl, but if you call me dumb one more time…"

"Alright," Chloe interrupted him mid-sentence with a shrug, took an apple from the leftovers of the picnic and played with it in one hand, "Just answer me one simple question: How deep is the _Mariana Trench_?"

Entirely surprised by the question and clearly not knowing the answer, Logan just stared at the bluenette with blinking eyes, turning around several times to plead for some help from his buddies.

"36,200 feet," it chimed from the crowd again.

"That's correct," confirmed Chloe with a nod, ignoring the fact that it wasn't Logan who had answered and that probably someone had just googled it with a smartphone. Immediately she stopped playing with the fruit in her hand and gazed at the boy in front of her deeply. "And what would happen to a human body at the bottom of the trench?"

She took the apple between her two flat hands and crushed it without any effort, sprinkling only Logan, who was startled and took a step back, with apple juice. And as the punk-girl handed Logan another apple, everybody knew that this just turned into a strength contest.

"Logan! Logan! Logan…" the Vortex Club cheered on their star-quarterback as he tried to crush the apple, too. He groaned loudly and his face became redder and redder as he vainly tried to copy Chloe's result, until he had to give up and dropped the fruit.

With a wry smirk, Chloe glanced at it. "Well…that was probably the pressure at the bottom of a swimming pool." she joked, but before she was able to add some more, her head was taken into a soft embrace and Max kissed her so intimately that she forgot everything else.

"That…was so…hot!" the small brunette panted heavily, clearly aroused by this demonstration.

"Okaaaay," Chloe now enounced, not giving a damn if anyone was interested, "We're gonna pack our stuff and bail, 'cause I'm gonna get laid tonight!"

"Hella laid!" added Max with a giggle as both girls began to stuff their belongings into the backpack.

The whole Vortex Club just stood by, not one of them saying a word. And as Chloe and Max just walked past them, the bluenette flipped them the bird with a toothy grin, followed by a "Later, fuckers!"

* * *

12th March 2017, Portland, Oregon

Portland streets

Since she'd parted from Mikey this day's morning, Chloe had wandered the streets of Portland aimlessly, trying to figure out what to do next. Something inside her told her to head south. Where to? She had no idea.

More than once, the blue-haired had wished for nothing more than to lay down somewhere and stay there until death with its soothing certainty would embrace her. But something inside told her to move on.

Somehow she knew that someone was still following her; was watching her. Therefor, she stayed in public the whole time. But something inside told her to wait for night's fall and make a stand; let them come.

From the ATM in front of her, a whirring sound emerged as it spit out a bunch of dollar bills. These were Chloe's entire savings from the last 6 months. Enough money to live a simple life on the road for some time. She took the bank card from the machine and glanced at it for some time. Plastic was easy to track, but cash wasn't, so she decided to stick with the old-school type of payment.

After stuffing the pile of money in the inner pocket of her jacket, she zipped it close, shouldered her heavy backpack and made her way into a dark and abandoned alleyway.

Just moments after she'd entered an old, dirty and unused backyard, three masked and fully armed men emerged from the shadows and surrounded her.

The young girl dropped her backpack and waited. She knew that this would happen; she literally provoked it. Now, she just had to be a bit patient.

"Seize her!" ordered the man in front of her, not knowing that he'd just sent his men into death.

From one moment to another Chloe's eyes and hair started to glow blue brightly, and merely a second later, the man to her left was crushed against the wall, his blood flowing in a dense stream as it was squeezed out of his flattening body. The second man to her right shared an equally cruel fate as his torso flew away, while his head and limbs stayed in place, falling to the ground a few seconds later. The third man, however, floated in mid-air, still alive, his arms and legs spread out.

" _Omaha Base, Omaha Base_ , this is…"

"Be quiet!" interrupted Chloe the captured man with her distorted voice. Not voluntarily he had to stop talking as all air suddenly had left his lungs, only to return again a moment later. "We're surrounded by a field that can't be penetrated, neither by your radio nor our sonic waves. So, no one can hear or help you." She closed in on her victim as his mask was ripped away from his face, showing the girl the fear in his facial expression. "Who are you? Who sent you?"

Silence.

"Do you know what I am?"

Once more, silence.

"Listen closely! I can torture you for hours to get my answers, or…you simply talk and I'll grant you a quick death."

"Y-you're a Neph'arim."

"Hmm…so, you know what a Neph'arim is. That's interesting. Why are you hunting me?"

"F-fuck you!"

"Fuck you?" the bluenette scoffed with some amusement, "You humans and your vulgar language. Chloe uses it quite often. It's amusing and the first time I emerged from my sleep I used it, too, but…its not worth being used by a Neph'arim. But I'm trailing off." She focused on the former masked man again, increasing the pull on his limbs. "Who sent you?"

"For my country!" the man answered in pain with an evil stare. After a cracking sound chimed from his mouth, he gagged and his body began to spasm until it hang limp in the air.

Bobbing her head slightly to one side, Chloe gazed at the dead man in front of her emotionlessly. "Poison? What a shame." While the body fell to the ground, the man's radio kept floating. With a stretched out arm the girl took it, dropped the surrounding field, pushed the button and spoke.

"Whoever is hearing this, I don't know who you are, but you know what I am. You know what I'm capable of and you know that you don't stand a chance against me. From today on I'll disappear. I'm just seeking peace and I won't harm anyone, but…if you or anyone else come close to me ever again or hurt innocent people, especially people that are very close to us, I'm going to hunt you down and once I found you, you'll scream for mercy! For this I give you my word. The word of a Neph'arim!"

Ending the speech by squeezing the radio together with her bank card and Mikey's credit card into a tiny ball of junk, Chloe shouldered her backpack again and vanished in the shadows of the night.

* * *

5th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon

Arcadia Bay Harbor

The words of this message from 6 months ago were still swirling inside his head. This voice; this more than unearthly voice even haunted him in his dreams. He'd seen a lot in his life. Death and decay. Crimes against every form of humanity and morality. He'd seen hell on earth. But this voice. From the first moment Sanders had heard this voice he knew that he'd messed with the devil himself. This girl had already killed 6 of his men in a most gruesome way in merely seconds. Men, who had been trained to go through hell and back without a scratch. He knew that if this operation would fail, not even the Lord could safe them.

"Sir, they're moving!" a soldier in front of a screen informed the Colonel, bringing him back from his deep thoughts.

"Alright, men, we entered the hot phase. Keep tracking them! Extraction Team?"

"This is _Echo Tango_ , we're in position." it chimed from the speakers.

"Good! Everybody on standby!"

Sanders gave Mr. Wilcock one glimpse from the corner of his eye. Everybody knew what went wrong last time. It had been a mistake to kill the woman, because it provoked her. Obviously, the girl had been unaware of her powers until they literally forced her to use them. Six men died because of one dead woman. They won't repeat this mistake. Not tonight.

* * *

The Caulfield's house

With squealing tires the ATV slid around the curve and up the driveway, directly into the garage where it came to a sudden halt as Chloe hit the breaks hard. The engine died and the bluenette jumped from the vehicle, ripping off the helmet as soon as her feet touched the ground.

"Whoohoo! That was hella awesomesauce!" she cheered, walking up and down because her body was still flooded with adrenaline. "Damn, I bet we broke at least a dozen traffic regulations…and I don't even have a license!"

A wide smile on her face, Max was leaning against the ATV and watched her girlfriend. "Believe me, Chlo, there are far worse drivers in this town. I think you did pretty well. Besides," She pushed herself from the vehicle and walked over to Chloe with slow, seductive steps. As her arms softly embraced the bluenette's body, Max bit down on her bottom lip and whispered into her ear. "Bad girls make me hella hot!"

Staring at the small, giggling brunette, Chloe gulped and her body frozen. Before she knew what was happening, Max's lips crashed on hers for a wild tongue play.

"You…Me…My bedroom…Now!" moaned Max between the kisses and they slowly made their way to Max's bedroom, not willing to break the contact.

Max barely managed to press the switch which closed the garage door. The girl's shoes flew wildly in different corners before they went upstairs. At the top Max dropped her jacket and Chloe her open button shirt. As they had entered Max's room, she wasn't able to close the door, but instead gave Chloe a push and let her fall onto the bed.

A nightlight painted the entire room into a warm orange, illuminating the two heavy breathing girl's. For a long moment, Max and Chloe stared at each other with lustful gazes.

Slowly, Max unbuttoned her shirt and let it slide from her skinny arms. Under it, she only wore a white sports bra. Next, she unzipped her short skirt and let it drop, too. Then she stripped off her tights, revealing her pink panties.

"Damn, y-you're so hella sexy!" spoke Chloe with a dry mouth and a dropped jaw as her eyes scanned the bare skin of her girlfriend.

Once more, Max closed in with slow, but this time slight nervous, steps. Her small, trembling hands brushed over Chloe's body, beginning from her legs, up under her top, moving it upwards until, eventually, it was taken off. Leaving a trail of wet kisses, Max made her way down again and as she reached the bluenette's waistline, she unbuckled and unbuttoned her blue jeans and stripped it off, too, before she continued her way.

Max continued her kissing treatment for Chloe's entire body, using her girlfriend's moaning as an indicator for sensitive spots. Whenever Chloe's moaning intensified, Max gave this special spot a bit more attention. But as the small brunette realized that Chloe was on the edge, she stopped and focused her lips on the blunette's lips again.

"F-fuck, Max! I-I want you…please…" groaned Chloe loudly in lust as she pressed Max closer. Now the last garments landed on the floor and both girls, now entirely naked, kissed intensively and explored their bodies, their moaning growing louder and louder with every stroke and every grind, until it peaked in soft, lustful screams of relief.

* * *

Not far away from the Caulfield's house

For hours they were now sitting here, waiting for orders to finally strike. Stransky knew about waiting. He already waited an awful lot in his life. During his time in the army he had to wait for the congress to finally make up their mind. As a mercenary he had to wait for his contractor to finally pay his price. And now he had to wait again.

Waiting was a waste of time. Time, in which he could've killed a lot of people and end the mission. He wasn't a saint or world safer. He knew that. He was the product of a world that needed men who were willing to do what had to be done; even if it meant to kill children. War was hell and Stransky saw himself not as a devil; no, that would just be pretentious; but more as a demon. He wouldn't even call himself evil, because the definition of _evil_ always depended from the point of view. So, he was what he was, an eradicator of unworthy human life.

This, however, was contradicted by the fact that he had to use _taser bullets_ tonight. Stransky had read the reports about the other two teams. KIA in merely seconds and the chances were high that history would repeat itself tonight. He didn't want to go like this. No, sir! Maybe a bullet through the head. Yeah, that would be a nice way to go. But ripped into pieces? That was just fucked up. So, he had to make sure that this wouldn't happen tonight.

Stransky unloaded his MP7, took a fresh magazine from a secret compartment of his combat vest and reloaded gun.

"Stransky, what are you doing?" hissed one of the other two soldiers of the extraction team.

"Puttin' some real bullets in that gun, boy." he answered nonchalantly, not even rising his sight.

"We're not allowed to use life ammo!" protested the other soldier, who startled as he had Stransky's gun aiming at his face a second later.

"Listen, pal, you saw the pictures. If these toy bullets don't work, you'll be more than happy if I end your misery and kill this bitch!"

" _Echo Tango, come in!",_ it chimed from the radio.

" _Echo Tango_ here!"

" _The target stays at the girl's house. Move there and take position!"_

"Copy that!" Stransky answered, hiding his excitement, "You heard the man, let's move out!"

* * *

The Caulfield's house

"Chloe?" Max asked softly. She was lying on the side, her head resting on Chloe's shoulder while her hand drew soft lines over her silky skin.

"Hmm?" the bluenette hummed, gazing hat the ceiling as she was lying on her back, her right hand brushing through Max's messy brown hair.

"You never told me about your time after you left the orphanage."

Out of a sudden, Chloe stopped to stroke the brunette's hair, even stopped to breathe. But not because the question made her angry, no. More than once she thought about telling Max everything. But was now the right time? This whole evening had been more than awesome and going into another dark detail of her past wouldn't exactly lighten her mood. So, Chloe decided to skip this topic for now.

"I wanna tell you, Max, but…but not tonight, 'kay?"

"Okay." Max simply replied, grabbing Chloe's other hand and intertwined their fingers, "I really love you, y'know. Not just some crush, I…I don't know…it's like there's a bond between us."

Feeling a warm wave of deep love rushing through her body, Chloe inhaled deeply and pressed her girlfriend even closer. "I love you, too! Like crazy!"

A long moment of comforting silence occurred, only broken by Chloe's sudden giggling.

"Dude, we're so lucky that your mom isn't home."

"Yeah," Max scoffed, "It would've been slight awkward in the morning."

"Do your folks even know that you're dating girls?"

"Mh-hm, my mom caught me and Vicky in bed when I was sixteen. Gosh, that was so embarrassing, way more embarrassing than the time she caught me masturbating."

Staring at her girlfriend with eyes wide open, Chloe's heart began to beat faster as she realized that they started to talk about Max's sex-life.

"Okay, lemme get this straight. You had a gf and still rubbed yourself one?"

"So?" Max replied, now gazing at Chloe with a frown.

"I'm just saying, you must've been very active and kinda careless if your mom caught you all the time."

"Three times a week, if you need to know. And yes, when I'm horny I tend to forget my surroundings," answered Max with a huff, lying her head back down. Suddenly, The brunette's hand was guided down, right between Chloe's legs, where it instantly began its work.

"I'm ready for round number two now. How about you?" Chloe spoke softly with some moans.

Max didn't even bother to give an answer. She just shuffled her body closer and planted some kisses on the bluenette's breasts. A loud thud downstairs, however, let both girls stop immediately.

"Dammit!" Max said with a sigh and slowly got up, while Chloe gazed at girlfriend.

"Something wrong, Maxi?"

"Nah, probably just our stupid cat, vandalizing the living room. Better throw her out before she pukes all over the place again and mom gets a seizure. I'll be back in a minute."

Giving her girlfriend one last hot kiss for the time of her absence, Max stood up, put on her panties and a T-Shirt, and made her way downstairs.

Due to the street lamps it wasn't really pitch-black throughout the house so that Max didn't need to turn the lights on. Her body still filled with hormones and her head entirely thinking about how to treat Chloe after she returned, the brunette slowly went down the steps, not realizing that someone stood at the bottom of the stairs. Only as she raised her gaze she was startled, but before Max was able to make a sound, three silenced shots chimed and the world went dark.

* * *

" _Echo Tango, you have a go!"_

Finally! Finally some action! The waiting was over and it was time for the kill. Stransky knew that he wasn't supposed to kill someone, but where would be the fun if there wasn't at least one single corpse?

They had already taken care of the lock, so that they only had to push open the front door quietly. The third man had probably done the same procedure with the backdoor. With cautious but quick steps they entered the house. Everything went like in the books until a loud thud chimed behind Stransky. He turned around, gun up and ready, only to realize that his comrade had stumbled over a combat boot that was lying on the floor. Idiot!

Then he heard some female voices upstairs, a moment later someone was moving. Now he needed to react or else the mission would turn FUBAR. Stransky turned, signaled the two man – the one from the backdoor had already joined them – to stand back, and took position at the stairs. And then he saw her. She was skinny, beautiful, had freckles. Oh how Stransky loved girls with freckles. And though the world was painted green by the NVGs, he saw that she had slight pale skin with slightly blushed cheeks.

The girl, clearly with her mind somewhere else, finally looked at him. He saw the life in her widening eyes, the growing fear, the need to scream. That was the right moment; the moment he wanted to remember his victims.

With delight, Stransky squeezed the trigger of his silenced gun three times. He just wanted to be on the safe side. And now came the real metamorphosis. The change from fear to shock to realization and finally, the break. The girls eyes rolled back as they were closing, her body went limp and she fell. Now she was perfect.

"Tango eliminated." he reported with a wry, satisfied smile that nobody could see under his mask.

* * *

Arcadia Bay Harbor

"What do you mean with _Tango eliminated_?" Sanders blurted into the radio, only to receive silence.

" _He iced the small brunette, Sir."_ came the answer some moments later from one of the other soldiers of the extraction team.

"GODDAMMIT!" the Colonel yelled, ripping one of the monitors from its place and threw it through the entire room. Furiously he turned towards Wilcock, who just looked at him emotionlessly while Sean Prescott beside him jumped. "I told you! I fucking told you that this asshole's a fucking psycho!"

The old man simply ignored Sander's outbreak and calmly spoke into the radio. "Proceed. Search the house and find the target."

Just shaking his head, Sanders walked up and down to control his anger. How could this happen? Everything had been perfectly planned and now it went to shit because of one trigger-happy psychopath.

" _She's not here, Sir."_ it chimed through the radio and everyone in the room gazed at each other.

Instantly, Sanders took over again. "Repeat, soldier!"

" _The target's not here, Sir. We found some of her clothes but that's it. She's gone."_

For another moment the Colonel and Mr. Wilcock shared a long glare, before he gazed at a soldier on a monitor. "Track her _Omega-Waves_. Thermalscans. Everything. She can't be that far."

"Uhm…Sir." the soldier on the screen said nervously, "I can't track her. The sensors are going haywire."

The Colonel walked over to his workstation and looked at the monitor. Whole Arcadia Bay was painted blue and sometimes entirely covered by white noise. He shared another glimpse with Wilcock and both knew that the mission had failed and that there was only one thing left to do. " _Echo Tango,_ exfiltrate! Take the girl with you."

" _Sir, yes, Sir!"_

Then, he addressed everyone in the room. "Alright, men, you know the drill. Pack everything up, we'll leave in 30 minutes. So, move it!"

Suddenly, the whole room came to a hectic life. Light's were turned on, things were packed and orders yelled. Wilcock was about to leave as Sean Prescott grabbed him by his shoulder. "Hey! What do you mean with _pack everything up_? This monster's still out there. What if she goes rampage in my town?"

"Mr. Prescott," the old man said calmly, brushing Sean's hand off his shoulder like some dirt, "So far she only killed the people who attacked her. We took away the only thing that kept her here, so we think that she will leave this town soon. Now, go home and give the Board your report. Good evening, Mr. Prescott."

* * *

Above Arcadia Bay

The fresh breeze of the night played with her blue-glowing hair and tugged on Max's blue shirt she'd thrown over before she left. A flood of blue shining tears emerged from her glowing eyes, ran over her cheeks and dripped towards the earth as she watched from her high position how Max's body was loaded into a truck.

Her fists clenched and her entire body was overflowing with anger and _Omega-Energy_. She would've loved to burn this whole town to cinder, but what would be the use of thousands of dead people if you only want to catch a few who were hunting her; who hurt Max.

No, now the time had come to turn the tables. This time she would wait. Wait like a hunter. She would wait until they'd lead her to their lair and then…well, then there would only be one thing left to do: taking vengeance!


	7. Chapter 6: The Hunt for Vengeance

**Chapter 6: The Hunt for Vengeance**

20th March 2017, Pacific coastline, Oregon

Somewhere south of Portland

The orange light of the campfire was reflected by Chloe's wet cheeks while she was staring at the flames. She missed that carefree life she had for over half a year. She missed Mikey, Grace and Stacy. But who she missed over everything else was Steph. Since the day it happened, Chloe had shed so many tears; had cried hours several times a day. Yesterday she'd read in a newspaper that Stephanie Gingrich's funeral was today. Knowing that she couldn't be there to say one last goodbye had driven her over the edge.

Feeling entirely numb inside, Chloe had walked to this very beach and collapsed on the spot, crying and yelling all her emotional pain out for hours. This was now way over ten hours ago.

After she'd made a fire to have at least a bit warmth over the night, the bluenette had just sat down and stared into the flames like they could give her an answer how to live with this pain.

Another wave of deep sorrow rushed through her body and made the young girl sob again.

' _Chloe!'_ a female voice suddenly chimed, letting the punk-girl jump up and looked around in panic.

"Wh-who's there?"

' _Calm down, Chloe!'_

"Wh-whoever this is, stop fucking 'round with me and come out!" she kept on yelling, another sob emerging from her mouth.

' _There's nobody else here, Chloe. Please, sit down and I will explain everything.'_

"The fucking hell I will! Come out you piece of shit!"

Suddenly, everything went dark and as Chloe opened her eyes again, she was sitting by the fire once more. Entirely confused and feeling a bit dizzy, the bluenette scanned her surroundings, but nobody else was there and the voice was gone. "What the fuck?" she mumbled, brushing with her hand over her face as she sighed. "Just a fucking dream."

' _I'm sorry, Chloe. But I had to take over for a short moment to calm you down.'_ chimed the voice again, and once again, Chloe was startled and jumped up. _'Chloe, please, before you start to yell again, let me explain. Nobody's here, we're alone. The voice you're hearing – my voice – comes from inside of you.'_

Immediately, Chloe jumped up again and just stood there, her breathing heavy and her sight still wandering over the surrounding beach. The slight chilly wind was brushing over her face while the waves crushed against the coast. She buried her face in her hands and shook her head frantically. "This can't be! This can't fucking be! First this fucked up shit in Portland and now I'm hearing voices. I can't take this anymore!"

' _Chloe,'_

"No! This can't be."

' _Chloe,'_

"Go away! Go away! Go away!"

' _Chloe, listen to me.'_

"Go AWAY!"

Silence.

It was like the whole world went mute. Only slowly the sounds of nature returned. Her shallow breathing normalized with every draft of air, but her legs failed her. Chloe fell on her knees as exhaustion took over.

"Who are you?" she spoke with a shivering voice, hoping that nobody would answer. But sadly, it was a false hope.

' _My name is Juno'ka, former head scientist and commander of the first Neph'arim Empire as well as first council of God-Empress Amun'shek II during the period of the second empire.'_

Chloe would've loved nothing more than to freak out. Being on the run and followed by merciless killers, who murdered the love of her life was one thing, but hearing voices put the whole thing into a new dimension of fucked-up shit that she could only face with cynicism and a scoff. "Wow, that…sounds kinda fancy. But what the fucking hell are you doing in my head?"

' _I don't know. But based on the facts at hand I'd say someone merged our – as you would call it – DNA.'_

"You sure? Sounds more to me like I went hella bonkers and you're just some schizophrenic figment of my imagination. And since I'm all alone and bored, let's chat a little."

' _Chloe,'_

"Hi Juno, I'm Chloe Elizabeth Price, recently homeless and on the run from some fucking murderous asshats. I turned eighteen a few days back, before all my hope and love was killed and my life turned into another big pile of shit. Oh yeah, and did I mention that I started to hear voices in my head? But except from that I'm hella normal. Your turn!"

' _Chloe,'_

"C'mon, don't be shy! Just open up a bit and tell me something about you. I always wanted an imaginary friend."

' _Chloe, I know it's a lot to cope for you, but…'_

"Dude, it's hella unfriendly not to return a gesture of trust. I opened up to you, now it's your turn!"

' _As you wish. I'm Juno'ka, former…'_

"You already said that."

' _It's rude to interrupt someone mid-sentence!'_

"Smartass!"

' _As I said, I'm Juno'ka. At the time I was still alive I had been 5,234 Neph'arim-standard-years old. In Earth-years this should be approximately 6,000 years.'_

"Wait! 6,000 freakin' years?! Dude, you're more insane than I am! And what the freakin' hell is a Neph…Neph-uh-fuckamajimmy?!"

' _Neph-a-rim.'_

"Yeah, that one."

' _The Neph'arim were a proud race, whose empire once spread across almost the entire galaxy. Sadly, wars, mistrust, treason and discord drove us into extinction. At the time I died our entire fleet had been destroyed and the Galactic Alliance was about to clean planet after planet from my people. The few survivors were on the run…like you are now.'_

"Okayokayokay, whoawhoawhoa, back up there! Other planets? Galactic Alliance? Across the Galaxy?! Where am I, Star Wars?!"

' _Chloe, what I'm telling you here is the truth and deep inside you know it. You always reached for the stars; were fascinated by them; wanted to visit them.'_

Thinking about Juno'ka's words, Chloe realized that there was truth in them. She remembered how often she snuck out of the orphanage to climb up the emergency ladder and watch the clear night sky from the roof of the building. How often she dreamt to travel the universe. How she never felt home anywhere. Once, Chloe had even talked with Steph about this and she'd told her that she was very special and unique. Now, Chloe knew what Steph probably meant with these words.

The world began to spin around Chloe as nausea and dizziness overwhelmed her. "D-does this mean th-that you are really an…fuck…you're an alien?" she asked, already afraid of the answer.

' _If this word means that I'm not human and wasn't born on this planet, then you're correct.'_

"A-and you said that someone _merged_ our DNA?"

' _Probably, yes.'_

"Okay…" she said with a heavy voice, fighting to hold down her last meal, "I-I think I'm gonna lay down a bit."

' _Chloe?'_

Before Chloe could answer Juno'ka everything went dark and she fell, head first, in the sand as she lost her conscious.

* * *

5th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon

' _They killed her. They fucking killed my Max.'_ chimed Chloe's voice through her head, accompanied by pure sorrow.

"I know. I'm so sorry, Chloe!" answered Juno'ka, who was now in control over Chloe's body while she was floating high above the town, watching how the unknown killers were loading Max's body into a black van. "I need to end this…tonight."

' _Juno, what…'_

"Chloe, I want you to retreat into the deepest depths of your subconscious and stay there until I give you the control over your body back."

For a moment there was silence until Chloe spoke again.

' _You gonna kill them, aren't you?'_

"Enough innocent died by their hands. It is time to put this to a final end. Death is the only language they speak, so death will be the answer they'll receive. Besides, I gave them my word as a Neph'arim that I'd kill them, and a Neph'arim will always be bound to his word."

' _Juno, just one thing…no innocent, okay.'_

"You have my word, Chloe."

Then Chloe was gone, only Juno'ka remained, ready for the hunt.

She witnessed how the masked men embarked the vehicle, which drove off right away, and three other men stayed. Juno'ka decided to follow the van in order to find out where it came from.

She focused on manipulating the air around her and followed the vehicle by flying above it, always trying to stay out of sight. It was almost too easy and just as this thought hit the bluenette's mind, she saw how the air in front of the vehicle started to shimmer. From one moment to another the black van was gone. Vanished into thin air.

Quickly, Juno'ka nosedived and came to a halt right at the spot where the vehicle had disappeared. She closed her eyes and scanned the entire location for anything unusual and she found it: _subspace particles._

"Subspace-technology…interesting." she said and instantly knew that Max's killers escaped without leaving a trace to follow, so that there was only one possibility left. "Pity, looks like I have to do it the old-fashioned way."

She gazed down the street towards Max's house. Three other men stayed, probably to secure the area and to clean up their mess. Three persons who could give her the much needed information.

Juno'ka approached the Caulfield's house. The door was closed and nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. But she knew better. There was no need to be subtle anymore. Scanning the movement of air molecules inside the house the bluenette knew the exact location of her opponents.

With a loud crack the wooden door was ripped out of its hinges, hitting the guy who had been standing watch so hard that he was dead in an instant. Before the two other men were even able to react, Juno'ka had already lifted them into the air, their limbs stretched out and useless.

She approached the closest soldier, literally feeling the fear he radiated. "You know what I am and saw what I can do. Now tell me, where are they bringing her?" As she'd already experienced at the other encounters, these men seemed to have the explicit order to stay quiet, but she also knew that some convincing arguments could make them talk quite easily. "If you can't answer me this question, then how about a simpler one? What happens to a human body at bottom of the Mariana Trench?"

Seeing in the soldier's eyes that he didn't understand the use of this question, Juno'ka just shifted her gaze to the other man, letting the asked one follow her glare, and from one moment to the other his companion was squeezed into a thin sheet, his blood sprinkling everything except the bluenette who was protecting herself with a shield of tight compressed air molecules.

"You were saying?" she asked, her blue-glowing eyes now fixed on the last alive man once more.

His eyes were watery while his whole body trembled and a puddle of urine was forming under him. As Juno'ka leaned in he blurted his answer out in panic. "I don't know! I don't know, okay! I swear! We get contacted, then someone picks us up, brings us to a complex in the middle of nowhere and then we're deployed via some subspace-portal-shit to a local makeshift base of operation. That's all I know. Please!"

He began to sob out of fear for his life, but Juno'ka felt no pity for him. "Where's your _makeshift base of operation_?" she asked and received an answer. Nobody heard his screams outside the sonic-proof field that was surrounding the house as the bluenette relieved the soldier from his misery.

* * *

21st March 2017, Pacific coastline, Oregon

A small Motel near Lincoln City

Chloe opened her eyes and sat up with a start. The first thing she realized was that she wasn't at the beach anymore, but in a slight shabby room. From its interior Chloe guessed that it belonged to a Motel or maybe even a small hotel.

"Fuuuck!" she said with a big sigh, brushing with her hand over her face, asking herself once more if this unbelievable stuff about aliens had been nothing more than a freaky nightmare. As she unwrapped herself from the blanket which was covering her body she realized that she was naked. Chloe knew that she'd never ever sleep naked, except she had sex and fell asleep right after it. But since lacking a girlfriend, Chloe knew that something was wrong.

' _I'm glad you're finally awake,'_ chimed Juno'ka's voice in her head out of a sudden, making the young girl to get up with a start and fall out of bed with a shriek.

"Goddammitfuckingshit, stop scaring the shit outta me!" Chloe yelled, stood up and rubbed her butt where she'd landed on.

' _I'm sorry! I was under the false assumption that you already got used to my presence.'_

"Obviously not! So, where the fuck am I and why the freakin' hell am I butt-naked?!"

' _You are in an etablissement that is commonly known as a Motel near a settlement called Lincoln City. I had to get you to a warm and safe place as soon as I realized that heavy rain was coming. Sadly, I found this place not in time and we got pretty drenched. To prevent hypothermia, I had to strip off your clothes and tug you in a blanked in order to preserve your body heat.'_

"Wouldn't have a hot bath, or shower done the same?"

' _In a state of hypothermia it is unwise to expose your human body to an environment of high temperatures. Using your own body heat is the most efficient way to heat it up again.'_

"You're such a smartass, you know that?" Chloe said and made her way to the bathroom.

' _And you are very rude to someone who tries to give you a well meant advice.'_

"Touché!"

The bluenette turned on the hot water of the shower and stepped under the stream, sighing as the liquid hit her body. Since she'd left Portland, Chloe hadn't had the chance to take a shower. She took a handful of the free liquid soap and began to wash her scruffy hair. As she washed out the foam, she gazed at a shining blue streak, fumbling it with her fingers.

"Why did my hair turn blue?"

' _The_ Divine Energy _that runs through your body changed its color, Chloe.'_

" _Divine Energy_?" Chloe scoffed, "Were your people some sort of religious fanatic alien nutjobs?"

' _Though you're right that this name has a theistic origin, the Neph'arim of my time didn't believe in any deities anymore. The_ Divine Energy _had been discovered by my race in the early stages of their colonization of other planets. Back in said time, we discovered the remnants of a long extinct race that we only called the_ Ti'hak _, the_ First Ones _. They predated the Neph'arim by at least two million years.'_

"Whoa, that's pretty fucking old! And you still found stuff from them? Shouldn't it be…I don't know…already rusted away 'n' shit?"

' _We found the ruins on a moon that was drifting through the emptiness of space. Probably its former solar system had faded or it was thrown out of its orbit by a catastrophic event. But the fact is, that on this moon had been no activities whatsoever. No atmosphere and solar radiation means no corrosion. No tectonic activities and weather means no geologically influence such as sedimentation or earthquakes. These ruins had been perfectly preserved for so many years, yet we were fortunate that the moon hadn't collided with another object.'_

"Juno," Chloe said as she turned off the water and left the shower, drying off her body with a towel, "Are you even aware that you still haven't answered my question?"

' _Be patient, Chloe, I'm…'_

"History's so hella boring, just cut the crap and get to the point!"

A moment of silence occurred and Chloe already began to ask herself if Juno'ka was pouting, until she continued to speak.

' _As you wish. 150,000 years of history from an ancient alien race are actually really boring, so why bother you with it?'_

"Are you sulking?"

' _If you mean with sulking, that I'm very tired of your rude boldness and would love to retreat and leave you alone, then yes, I'm indeed sulking. The discovery of the_ Devine Energy _marked the most important event in the history of the Neph'arim. It made us who we actually were.'_

"Ugh! Okay, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to insult your race…people…whatever…aliens." Chloe answered Juno, feeling a bit guiltier as the apology sounded cheaper than she meant. She left the bathroom, took some fresh clothes from her backpack and started to dress. "So, uhm, tell me something about this _Divine Energy_ and why the hell it dyed my hair blue."

' _The Divine Energy represents the existence of our universe itself. It controls time, matter and, to most races unknown, life. A Neph'arim can't interact with every spectrum of the Energy. It's either matter or life or time, each represented by the basic colors blue, yellow and red.'_

"So, it's like color-coded and you're able to influence matter."

' _That's correct, and somehow this interaction changed the Neph'arim's hair DNA and let it posses the specific basic color or a mixture, depending how strong an aspect had been developed.'_

"But why only up here and not…well…" she looked inside her panties and fumbled with some of her pubic hair, "…down there?"

' _You are half human, Chloe.'_

"And you had bluish hair everywhere?"

' _That's a very intimate question.'_

"Dude, you already saw me naked and probably even watched when I had sex."

' _No, I only emerged when you had strong feelings.'_

"Like love and excitement during sex? Stop shitting me, Juno!"

Once more a moment of silence occurred, but this time it was simply awkward.

' _I tried to be absent during such…events. Can we change the topic back to the Divine Energy, please?'_

A wide, mischievous smirk formed on Chloe's lips as she heard the embarrassment that swung with Juno'ka's voice. Though it wasn't probably the best idea to mock an already pissed alien, Chloe followed her nature and did it anyway.

"Did I just embarrass an alien?"

Out of nowhere an intensive wave of pure lust flooded throughout Chloe's body, making her gasp, moan and almost losing her balance. If she wouldn't have held on to a table nearby, the bluenette would've hit the ground.

"Holy shit! What the fuck was that?! I-I almost came on the spot!"

' _We Neph'arim were very passionate lovers. Love, lust, yearning…if you live as long as I did, you develop a whole new understanding of such feelings; learn to control and intensify them. But you are very young, Chloe. Your feelings are nothing more than hormonal induced reactions of urge.'_

"Thanks for the flowers, Miss _Oh-I'm-living-my-feelings_. And you call me blunt and rude."

' _I think we're even then."_

"If you say so," Chloe sighed, rolling with her eyes annoyingly. "Damn," she then mutters, reaching down her panties once more only to realize that they were entirely sticky, "Now I need a new set of panties."

While the young girl was getting dressed her mind wandered. The whole conversation about love and sex had reminded her of Steph. Had reminded her that her love had died just a few days ago. Several tears ran down her face as she was mourning the loss of her girlfriend once more. Burying her face in her hands, Chloe sat down onto the bed and began to sob.

' _I'm sorry about your loss, Chloe! I know how much she meant to you. How much she meant to…us. It's my entire fault. They were certainly after me and…'_

"Stop it!" Chloe said quietly with a weak voice, "It's not your fault! You didn't kill her. But you killed them. Avenged her. And I'm so grateful for that!"

' _Revenge isn't a noble path, Chloe! What I did, I did only for protecting you. It was necessary, yet not justified. Taking a life is never the right choice.'_

"Said the alien who shredded them into bits and pieces without hesitation," the bluenette scoffed dryly.

' _If you're participating in numerous wars throughout thousands of years and are responsible for the death of millions you see the fading of life with some kind of pragmatism.'_

"MILLIONS!? Y-you mean that you killed millions?! What the fuck, dude?!"

' _Responsible, Chloe! Responsible! As a Commander of the Empire I had an entire fleet under my command. Two million Neph'arim in arms. Your planetary warfare's nothing compared to an intergalactic one. The loss of life during a battle could reach billions.'_

Chloe stayed silent for a while in need to process this information. Like the extensions and wonders of the universe, those amounts of dead were too much for a human brain to imagine, especially for an eighteen years old girl. "Billions…" she whispered, "That's so fucked up! How can you live on like this and talk about it like it's a walk in the park?"

' _I dedicated hundreds of years studying the mysteries of life and death and came to the conclusion that death isn't the end. How you die doesn't matter. Your life-energy flows back into the stream of the Divine Energy. That's how the universe works.'_

"But nonetheless the individual is still gone. Especially when you rip them apart! That's just hella cruel!"

' _No, it's simply a different view of morality. Jefferson didn't deserve to die quick and peacefully. He deserved to suffer for all the pain he'd caused. Sometimes, cruelty is quite useful and necessary as a psychologically factor! His violent death shall be a warning for everyone who wants to follow his footsteps!'_

"That's just a fucking sick point of view!"

' _Chloe, your race still has the luxury to hold on to such moral aspects. But the universe is an unforgivable place that houses countless different races with different point of views. Strict morality easily becomes a weakness if your opponent doesn't respect them. You need to show them that you're willing to be merciless if necessary; that you're stronger; that you're godlike.'_

This time, Chloe didn't reply anything. What she just heard was simply too much for her. New tears emerged from the corners of her eyes and dripped onto the carpeted floor.

' _Chloe, I know it's hard to understand, but…'_

"Just shut up!" the young bluenette spoke quietly with a trembling tone, covering her ears tightly to silence Juno'ka's voice.

' _There's no use in denying the truth or to lie to you. I did what I did and I am what I am.'_

"Yes," Chloe shouted in anger as she jumped up, "You're a fucking mass murdering psycho-alien with a freakin' god-complex! That's what you are!"

' _Chloe…'_

"Thanks to you I had to leave everything behind. Stacy, Mikey, Grace…S-Steph. For the first time of my life I had a real family. And thanks to you I'm alone again!"

' _And I thought you don't hold me responsible for that.'_

"I lied, okay, 'cause I thought you were actually nice and didn't deserve a guilt trip. But you're just as sick as Jefferson and those other fuckers!"

' _That's not true, Chloe!'_ Juno blurted back, agitation chiming with her voice, _'They hurt others for pleasure, I did not! I only did it because it was…'_

"Necessary?" Chloe scoffed, shaking her head, "Yeah, right…just keep on shitting yourself, Juno. You know what? Fuck off! Leave me alone! Get out of my fucking head! I don't wanna talk to you ever again!"

Silence occurred for another moment until Juno'ka's voice chimed for one last time.

' _Very well.'_

Then, she was gone.

* * *

5th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon

Arcadia Bay harbor

The metal roof of the abandoned warehouse cracked open like the top of a tuna can, and Juno'ka floated through the new formed entrance. Softly, she landed in the middle of the vast room, immediately scanning the entire area. Though it was pitch black inside, she didn't need any light to see, hence to her ability to sense any form of matter.

Except of some old wooden crates and some scrap, the entire building was empty. Marks in the dust that covered everything in this old construction, plus the remnant particles of advanced technology and the subspace told Juno'ka right away that something big went down here. But whoever these men were, they were professionals and had already disappeared through subspace without leaving a clue, like the ones who shot Max.

It was unnerving and Juno'ka had to gulp down her anger. She knew that agitation clouded the mind and that was something she couldn't afford right now, therefore the bluenette focused on finding even the tiniest trace that would bring her another step closer to those men who had hurt Chloe once more.

But no matter how hard she tried, there was nothing that could give her a hint. Now even more enraged, Juno'ka pushed a crate so hard against a close-by steel bar that it shattered into a thousand pieces. As she was about to focus on another one, her glowing blue eyes suddenly fixed on the label. She bobbed her head slightly as her lips formed a wry smirk upon reading two words: _Prescott Foundation_.

* * *

24th March 2017, Pacific coastline, Oregon

50 Miles south of Lincoln City

Heavy breathing and soft moans accompanied by the rustling of the fabric of Chloe's sleeping bag chimed through the small tent. The young girl's eyes were closed and her mind entirely focused on the treatment she was giving her private parts.

Despite everything she's been through; despite her losses, Chloe was still a teenager with – how Juno'ka called it – hormonal induced reactions of urges.

Mostly, the need for intimacy emerged when Chloe was still half asleep and her mind didn't work on a full level. But the problem was that with every minute she was awake her thoughts became more complex and wandered until they eventually caught a negative memory and let her lust turn into sadness and frustration.

Soon, her moans changed into quiet sobs, which got more and more frequent as seconds passed until Chloe curled up, wrapping her arms around herself while her crying intensified.

' _Chloe?'_ Juno'ka's voice chimed soft and cautiously inside her head.

"Go away! Leave me alone!" the bluenette whimpered between her sobs, but nonetheless Juno kept on talking.

' _Chloe, I understand that you don't want to talk with me anymore, but there's something we need to talk about.'_

"Can't you stupid cunt see that I'm not in the fucking mood to talk to you?" she yelled with deep anger. Until, suddenly, all her sadness and agitation abated. Immediately her crying stopped as a wave of comfort and warmth flushed through her entire body. It felt like someone had given her the warmest hug she'd ever received.

' _Do you feel better now?'_

Shaking off her first surprise, Chloe sat up, staring straight ahead in confusion. "Wh-what the…How did you…?"

' _As I said, we Neph'arim were able to control our feelings. Right now I gave all my comfort to sooth your emotional pain. I never wanted you to get hurt and I'm really sorry for everything I've caused!'_

"Well…uhm…gee, thanks…I guess."

' _You are a very kind-hearted, yet rebellious person, Chloe. In my entire previous life I only met one being who was very similar and I loved her dearly.'_

"Her?" Chloe spoke in surprise, "Lemme get this…well… _straight_ , you were female, right?"

' _That's correct.'_

"And your love was also a female?"

' _Yes.'_

"Huh, alien-lesbians. Who would've guessed?!"

' _Relationships between same genders weren't something unusual for my race. The ability to interact with the Devine Energy granted us great power and immortality, but it also robbed as of the possibility to reproduce.'_

"Wait! You mean your race had been sterilized and you weren't able to receive any kids?"

' _Not quite, but your chances to receive a child were 1 to 1,000,000 and not dependent anymore on sexual intercourse, because impregnation was only possible by bonding the life-energy. But it was too difficult, exhausting and a success not given. Many children died right after birth, because they were too weak to live on their own. And many Neph'arim died because of trying too hard. It was a tragedy. The power that was the peak of our evolution would also become our downfall.'_

"And had you…y'know, any kids?"

' _Sadly, no. I tried it once, but it almost cost me my life and I decided to dedicate my existence rather in researching the Divine Energy and the development of new technologies then in reproduction. It was a hard choice, but eventually the right one.'_

"Okay, bottom-line: you Neph'arim-guys were pretty fucked, and with great power comes great bullshit…or whatever."

' _You could say it that way, yes. And this brings me to the reason I wanted to talk with you in the first place: your powers.'_

"MY powers?! You're the one who ripped those fuckers apart, not me!"

' _Chloe, the ability to interact with the Divine Energy is linked with your DNA and I used your body to canalize it. The power rests inside of you. You simply don't know how to access or use it and this is very dangerous!'_

"Why? Do you fear I might accidently rip someone's dick off, or what?"

' _No, I fear more that you might kill thousands of innocent in a blink of an eye. Chloe, as far as I experienced, you have the capability to destroy an entire city in merely seconds. If you don't learn to control your powers, they could cause a serious amount of death and destruction.'_

"Okay, death and destruction's so not down my alley. So, when do we start?"

' _Right now! I already set up a field around the premise to shield off the sound and emerging energy waves from the outside world while you were asleep, or would you prefer to finish your needs first?"_

"Dude, talking about death, destruction and the baby problems of an alien race is such a cockblocker, you can't even imagine."

' _Well, if you want I can bring you back into mood and…'_

"Blech! Dude, I just decided to talk with you again, so keep your…your alien-mind out of my sex-life!"

' _Very well!'_

Chloe opened her sleeping back and a shiver ran through her as the cold air hit her scarcely dressed body. Quickly, she put on her jeans and a jacket and left the tent. With a deep inhale she enjoyed the fresh and salty morning air. Then she took out a cigarette and lit it.

' _You know that the inhale of these dried leafs is toxic for your race, right?'_

With a wry, rebellious smirk the bluenette took another draft and flicked the half-smoked cig away. "Yeah, but it kinda keeps me sane…for a while at least. But don't worry, I'm gonna quit someday…maybe."

' _Good to hear. Now focus!'_

"What, no boring history or theory lesson?"

' _No. Now close your eyes and focus on your surroundings. Try to feel the matter around you.'_

Chloe did what she was told and closed her eyes, trying to focus on her surroundings. At first, there was nothing. Only darkness and the sounds of nature. But then she felt something. Heat began to emerge from deep within her body. It felt strange and overwhelming, yet familiar and comforting. An undefined shape appeared in her sight, but it was too indistinct so that Chloe tried even harder until the tree stump in front of her exploded, sending dirt, bits and pieces flying around the area in high speed. Chloe took cover by hitting the ground, protecting her head with her arms.

Normally, the bluenette girl would've been pierced and severely wounded by the splinters, but as she opened her eyes and looked around, the deadly shrapnel were floating above her while her tent as well as the surrounding area had been entirely devastated.

"Holy! Fucking! Shit! D-did I do that?"

' _You superheated the air inside the stump, boiling up the liquid inside into a supercritical mass, which caused an abrupt release of gas under the given environment. Luckily, you also put up a force field around you by instinct.'_

"Dammit! I-I didn't want to…to do that. I…"

' _You simply tried to focus, yes! And that is the reason why you need to learn how to control your powers.'_

"Guess you're right, then." The splinters and dirt above her now rained down on her harmlessly as she got up. "You could've warned me, though!"

' _I thought telling you about the destruction of an entire city made this point pretty clear.'_

With a big sigh Chloe looked around and eyed the remnants of her stuff. "Ugh, I hope some of my stuff has survived, 'cause I don't have the money to buy everything new."

' _Don't worry, Chloe. We're close to our destination. I feel something that…draws me there. Just head some more miles south. Money shouldn't be a problem, trust me! Just focus on controlling your powers!'_

* * *

5th September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon

Prescott residence

A warm, cozy fire burned and crackled in the fireplace, giving the mostly with dark wooden elements decorated living room of the Prescott residence an almost relaxing atmosphere.

But Sean Prescott wasn't relaxed. For an hour now he tried to ignore that a murderous alien with superpowers was running free through his town, by sitting in an armchair and reading the financial part of the newspaper. Right after he'd returned home, he gave the Board his report, and they weren't happy how this whole thing went down. One dead civilian and zero captured aliens. He blamed Sanders for this mess, because if it where for him, Sean would've just sent a team of hitmen and simply killed this bitch right on the spot.

He took a glass filled with Scotch from the small table right beside the chair and emptied it with one big sip.

"Dad, can I borrow your Bentley?" chimed Nathan's voice as he came down the stairs.

"You're grounded, Nathan!" his father answered plainly, not even shifting his gaze from the paper.

"But Da-ad, my friends are throwing a party and…"

"I don't care!" Sean now spoke angrily, threw the paper aside stood up and walked towards his, "You brought shame upon our family-name again! Do you even know how much it cost me to contain the damage you've caused? How much people I had to pay to keep them silent?"

Taken aback by his father's rage, Nathan, now intimidated, took a few steps back. "B-but Dad, it wasn't my fault. This stupid cunt provoked me."

"And you let yourself get provoked. Now go and do for once something useful!" For once, Sean Prescott was glad that his up-to-no-good son had messed up again. Because he knew what threat was walking around out there, and just imagining what could happen to his son out there almost let him show weakness.

Nathan was about to leave as it suddenly knocked at the door. Both, father and son gazed at each other, asking themselves who would visit at this time at night.

The answer followed as the heavy wooden door began to constantly crack and crumbled into sharp pieces, which where whirling wildly in a sphere of deadly splinters. This ball of potential projectiles slowly floated aside and made way for Juno'ka who stepped slowly through the doorframe.

"Th-that's her, Dad! That bitch attacked me without a reason!" Nathan said in panic, taking cover behind his father, who glimpsed at him angrily.

"You idiot, why haven't you told me?" and then he gazed with some fear at the girl with the blue glowing hair and eyes. "I-it was a mistake to use your powers. Now they'll track you and hunt you down!"

Unimpressed by this pathetic excuse for a threat, Juno'ka bobbed her head slightly to one side and lifted Nathan and Sean Prescott in the air, letting them dangling there like a bunch of puppets with cut strings. "A field of Divine Energy charged particles surrounds this town, so tracking me should be close to impossible for your crude sensors. Still, I won't be here for long, because you already answered my first question."

The sphere of wooden splinters following her, Juno'ka approached Sean Prescott with slow steps, letting her index finger brush over the head of an expensive, ugly statue, whose head fell off immediately like it had been cut by an incredible sharp blade. As she'd reached her target, the bluenette stopped and glanced at him deeply. "Where did they bring her?"

Out of nowhere a shot chimed, but the bullet that was meant for her, had stopped long before reaching the girl's body. She turned her head and saw Mrs. Prescott, a slender woman with blonde hair, standing in the kitchen door, gun in her hand. The projectile flew back to its source with high-speed and destroyed the gun. Metal shrapnel cut deep into Mrs. Prescott's hand as she went down with a scream, holding her bleeding hand.

"MOM!" Nathan yelled as he saw his mother in pain and to his surprise the invisible grip around his body vanished.

"You should help your mother," Juno'ka said with a soft voice, gazing at the boy, "But don't try anything ill-considered," then shifted her gaze to Sean again, "And you were about to tell me the location of your base of origin."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't challenge me, you cheap excuse for a living being! You know who I am, so…" she leaned in closer, her eyes piercing daggers, "…tell me now or I'll take your family apart…limb by limb."

She saw the fear in his eyes. The fear of loss. Maybe people like him never cared about others, but when it came to their families most of them faltered eventually.

"I-I don't know where it is! I was there when I joined them, but they brought me to that base with some teleportation device. That's it, I swear!"

A first wave of desperation rushed through her body, but abated as fast as it appeared as a thought hit Juno'ka's mind. So far, his statement matched with what she'd witnessed and heard from the soldier: a secret base in the middle of nowhere, location unknown and only accessible via subspace transportation. But she felt that Sean Prescott still hadn't told her everything. She could see it in his eyes and feel the increase of his blood pressure. Individuals like him were always the same, even across the universe. They always had a backup plan.

Her gaze fell on Nathan, who was, once more, lifted into the air and floated towards her, screaming and lashing out with his limbs. "Would you swear it on your son's life?"

Though she'd never planned to kill Nathan, threatening to do so could be a very promising way to get what Juno'ka wanted and she wouldn't be disappointed. The last bit of arrogance vanished from Sean Prescott's face as his son's arm got stretched until his shoulder was being dislocated and he screamed in agony.

"My phone!" he suddenly yelled in panic, "The coordinates are on my phone! I took them as leverage if they'd try to double-cross me."

While the phone floated towards Juno'ka, Sean and Nathan Prescott hit the ground. Thanks to her powers she was able to control and influence every piece of technology without needing an input device. A wide, satisfactory grin appeared on her face as she'd finally found what she'd been looking for: the secret location of their base.

Now the sphere of wooden splinters flew into the middle of the room and exploded, destroying everything, except of Juno'ka and the Prescott family, who were all covered by a shield.

"Thank you for your cooperation," said the bluenette and headed for the door, stopping one last time, "Let's hope we never meet us again, because next time I won't put a shield around you and your family." Then she gazed at him deeply with her threatening blue glowing eyes. "And you know that I hold on to my promises!"

Then, she was gone, heading for her final destination on her hunt for vengeance!

* * *

30th April 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon

Downtown

' _What a hickhole!'_ thought Chloe as she was leaning against a wall close to a local coffee shop where she'd bought a cup of coffee five minutes ago. She scanned the town, which she'd arrived last night, while gulping down the last sip of the brown liquid. _'What was the name of this dump again?'_

' _(Juno'ka) Arcadia Bay.'_

' _And your…senses guided us here?'_

' _(Juno'ka) Yes! And I feel that whatever is drawing us here is getting stronger.'_

' _Great,'_ Chloe replied internally, _'I just hope it's not your faible for fucked up shitholes at the bum of the world.'_

' _(Juno'ka) No.'_

Chloe pushed herself from the wall, crushing the paper cup in her hands. _'Well, that was our last money. And now?'_

' _(Juno'ka) Search for a device that holds your currency.'_

' _Searching for an ATM. Yes, ma'am!'_

Though she'd asked some people where to find the next ATM, most of them didn't even answer or murmured some rude words because of her attire, letting Chloe hate this town even more.

' _Great, only because I don't look like the cute, little town girl they treat me like shit. Ugh, I hate this fucking dumphole!'_

' _(Juno'ka) Don't give up, Chloe! Humans seem to be very judgmental, yet you already found people who like you the way you are.'_

' _Yeah, and one quarter of them is dead and I'll never see the other three quarter ever again. Thanks for the heads-up!'_

' _(Juno'ka) I'm sorry, Chloe. It wasn't my intention to bring back bad memories.'_

For a moment Chloe stopped walking and sighed deeply, fighting down an upcoming wave of grief. _'It's…It's okay, Juno. I know you didn't mean it like that. Let's just focus on finding a fucking ATM.'_

It took her another fifteen minutes until Chloe had finally found the wanted cash mashine. _'Okay, found one. What now?'_

' _(Juno'ka) Give me access to your powers.'_

A warm feeling emerged from deep within her body as Chloe felt how it was flooded by the Divine Energy and a moment later the machine in front of her spit out two thousand dollars.

"Dude!" Chloe accidently yelled out as she saw the amount of money, "H-how…?"

' _(Juno'ka) Most of your electronic devices are connected via a worldwide network, based on a simple binary system. Influencing it wasn't that hard. Oddly enough, you humans seem to like imaginary data currency, so I just took the freedom to hypothetically create this money. Based on the prices I witnessed so far, this money should last for some time.'_

' _Oookay…so, you just hacked the Internet and created this money out of the blue?'_

' _(Juno'ka) Yes.'_

' _Badass!'_ commented Chloe, stuffed the money into her jacket and moved on, _'So, what's the plan?'_

' _(Juno'ka) We need to find the origin of what drew us here, because if it attracted us, then it is possible that it will attract our enemy, too.'_

' _Okay, but I need some food, a shower and a bed first, or else I'm gonna pout on you.'_

After Chloe had found a grocery store and bought us much food as she could carry, she tried to find a hotel, asking a few people again. She wasn't very far from the searched hotel as suddenly Juno'ka's voice screamed in her head.

' _(Juno'ka) Chloe stop! The source…it's near!'_

"What?! Where?!" Chloe blurted out and spun around, letting all the people around look at her. And then, she saw her.

She was in the middle of a bunch of girls, cutely laughing, maybe about a joke or something funny. Her brown, chin-long hair framed her beautiful, freckled face. The girl wasn't tall, maybe a bit under average height, and skinny, wearing casual, kind of geeky clothes.

"Holy fuck!" the bluenette whiffed, her body filled with hormones right away.

' _(Juno'ka) Chloe, I understand that you urge for closeness, but we have to find that source!'_

' _Dammit, Juno,'_ Chloe yelled back internally with agitation, _'For once I wanna forget about this shit and just live!'_ Her mood now gone and the cute girl out of sight, Chloe put her hands in her pockets and continued her way to the hotel with angry steps.

' _(Juno'ka) Chloe, I…'_

' _Just drop it, Juno!'_

' _(Juno'ka) Very well.'_

* * *

She saw her freckled face every time she closed her eyes. She wanted to see this cute laughing again. She wanted to meet her; wanted to talk with her; wanted to find out who she was.

After she'd spent the last month in the woods, learning to control her powers, this hot shower was more than soothing. It not only washed away the dirt, it was also way better than washing yourself in some cold creeks, and it gave her some time to think; to let her mind wander. But every time this cute, unknown girl popped up in her mind, making her feel a yearning deep inside. A yearning she'd suppressed for a month now. With every passing second this need built up more and more, growing into a big, hurtful knot that needed to be undone.

With a soft moan, Chloe let her hand slide over her body deep down between her legs, but as soon as she'd started to massage her sex, a big wave of negative emotions destroyed her mood again. The yearning was gone, but the almost painful knot remained.

She wanted to scream; wanted to cry; wanted nothing more than to make the people who did this to her make suffer. But she was tired of giving in to those feelings and this annoying knot. She wanted to be a bit normal again. Maybe she couldn't overcome this complicated situation all by herself, but with a little help. Help, she got offered before.

"Juno?" Chloe asked loudly. Now that they weren't in public anymore, she was finally able to speak with the Neph'arim inside of her like a real person, making her feel less alone and way less insane.

' _Yes, Chloe?'_

"Y-you told me once that…uhm…th-that you could help me with my urges."

' _Indeed I did.'_

"I…I-I wanna take this offer. But…but only under one condition!"

' _Name it.'_

"I…I want it to be romantic, slow. And…uh…I…I don't know if it's even possible, but I wanna meet you!"

After a moment of silence, Juno'ka answered. _'Very well. Get comfortable and I'll guide you.'_

"Okay." The bluenette answered shyly, turned off the water and left the shower. Quickly, she dried off her wet body and then, naked as she was, laid down on the bed.

She felt nervous. Her hands were clammy and shaking a bit. She felt like before her first time. "Okay, I'm comfortable…kinda. What now?"

' _Close your eyes and follow my voice.'_

Taking one last deep breath, Chloe closed her eyes and focused. At first everything was dark, but then, like someone used a light switch, everything around her was painted in a white light.

Chloe was now standing in the middle of this vast white room, still entirely naked, spinning around to scan the area as she suddenly spotted the blurry silhouette of a humanoid being, which became clearer the closer it came until Chloe saw her for the first time: Juno'ka.

She was very tall and slim, but also muscular, and her entire body covered with blueish glowing tribal-like tattoos. Her hair was cobalt-blue and short cut, and her face had some similarities with Chloe's, yet it was a bit more angular.

Being confronted with, in her eyes, such a majestic, perfect woman, all Chloe was able to do, as Juno'ka was standing right in front of her, was to gulp and lower her gaze.

Softly, Juno'ka touched Chloe's chin and made her to look into her deep-blue glistening eyes, greeting her with a warm smile.

"Y-you're so beautiful!" whispered Chloe, almost unable to speak.

"You are very beautiful, too, Chloe! Are you sure that you want to do this?"

Everything Chloe could muster was a shy nodding, before Juno'ka softly gave the young girl a kiss. At first unable to move, Chloe didn't reply the kisses, but soon all those worries; all those doubts; the fear and every other negative feeling was flushed away and made her to return those signs of affection eagerly.

"Can I…can I touch you?" the young bluenette asked cautiously, earning another warm smile by Juno'ka.

"Of course!" she answered, took Chloe's hand softly and guided it over her body. It felt soft and every time her finger ran over one of those tattoos their tips tingled slightly. Now entirely in the mood to do more, the young girl even began to touch the alien woman's perfect breasts on her own and would've touched other regions, too, if Juno'ka wouldn't have stopped her. "My pleasures are irrelevant, Chloe," she mentioned softly, and cautiously laid Chloe on a bed that hadn't been there before, "You can continue touching me for your pleasure, if you want, but…"

"No!" she gasped, "I-I want us both…uh, having pleasures!"

Looking puzzled at the girl with in unbelief, Juno'ka immediately regained her countenance. "As you wish!"

Now both wrapped their arms around each other, entangled in a lustful dance.

Since the incident in Portland, Chloe hadn't felt that alive. She almost had forgotten how it felt to touch someone; how it felt to be touched. It felt so incredible that, soon, the knot inside her belly finally was untied with tightly closed eyes and a loud and intense moan.

It took the young girl's mind some minutes to regain full consciousness again. She sensed that her whole trembling body was sweaty and that her heart raced. Slowly, she opened her eyes. The white room was gone as well as Juno'ka, which sent a slight wave of disappointment through her body. She took her hand from between her legs and glanced at the wetness it was covered with.

"Damn, that was hella intense!"

' _(Juno'ka) I'm glad you enjoyed it!'_

"And did you…y'know?"

' _Since we share the same feelings be rest assured that I'm very satisfied!'_

For some time Chloe just laid there, gazing at the ceiling and caught in deep thoughts about her future. She would've loved to smoke a cigarette right now, but since she was too lazy and way too exhausted to get up, she just suppressed her addiction and let it drop.

' _You think about HER, do you?'_

"I thought you could read my mind. So, why do you ask?" Chloe scoffed.

' _I only share your thoughts if you grant me access to them.'_

"Well, I guess I wanna keep this to myself, then. But…"

' _You want me to find out some details about her.'_

She took another deep inhale to overcome her shyness once more, giving her an additional slight blush to her still reddened face. "Yeah…but only her name and which school she goes to."

Once more, Divine Energy flooded her body as Juno'ka used her power to find out the wanted information.

' _Her name is Maxine Caulfield, but she prefers to be called Max, and she's a student at a local education facility called Blackwell Academy.'_

"Max, huh? Cute name; fits her." Chloe said and as a plan popped up in her mind, she grinned sheepishly, "Say, Juno, can you make me a student at Blackwell?"

' _Of course! With or without financial aid?'_

Her grin grew even wider, "Just guess!"

* * *

3rd September 2017, Arcadia Bay, Oregon

Blackwell Academy

Loud music, chiming from her phone, ripped Chloe out of her deep slumber, letting her groan. Aimlessly she tried to find the source of this noise on her nightstand and finally found it a minute later. But instead of getting up, Chloe turned around in order to fall asleep again.

' _Chloe, get up!'_

"Fuck off, Juno! It's Sunday," was Chloe's mumbled reply.

' _But you're going to be late for the tour!'_

Being reminded that she had planned to finally meet Max Caulfield on that tour, Chloe literally jumped out of bed. In a fast pace she grabbed her shower supplies from a cardboard box, not even wasting a second that her new dorm room still looked like a mess.

After a quick shower she returned to her room, ignoring everyone on the way. She put on some her clothes she'd pulled out randomly from another box. Thanks to Juno'ka, ordering needed stuff from the Internet had been easy without leaving any traces.

The bluenette was about to leave her room, as Juno'ka's voice let her stop.

' _Chloe, the source is still close by. Please, be cautious!'_

Instead of a reply or a simple comment, Chloe stood still, not moving. "Juno," she spoke quietly, "There's something I need to tell you. I…I wanted to do it earlier, but I always chickened out." She took a big inhale and sighed deeply. "I want you to retreat into my subconscious again and stay there. I…I know it sucks and it's a dick move after everything, but I finally wanna live a normal life again. I wanna be a normal teenage student with fucking normal teenage puberty problems. No powers. No aliens. No fucked up shit. I'm sorry that I haven't told you before, but…"

' _It's alright, Chloe! I'm not mad at you. This body belongs to you and I'm merely a guest. A lost soul which you granted shelter. I have no right to demand an everlasting equal position. Go! Live your life! Find happiness! And if you need me, I'll be there for you!'_

A tear rolled down Chloe's cheek as she felt one last warming hug before Juno'ka retreated in the depths of her conscious. She felt guilty and dirty for doing this, and she swore to herself to make it up to her one day.

With a last sniff she opened the door and left, ready to finally face her future.


	8. Chapter 7: The Power of a Neph'arim

**Chapter 7: The Power of a Neph'arim**

6th September 2017, Nellis Range Complex, Nevada

Secret, non-governmental Research-Facility

Two circular metallic objects stood in the middle of a bright enlightened, vast room. The walls, ceiling and floor were made of concrete. Its interior filled with technological equipment. At least twenty heavy armed soldiers were standing at the ready, facing the large subspace portals.

Mr. Wilcock and Colonel Sanders, who had just arrived a few minutes ago, waited for the extraction team finally to show up.

" _Incoming subspace signal!"_ it chimed from the speakers. Immediately all soldiers readied their guns and aimed at the portals, in which the air began to shimmer, before an intense bright spot grew into circle of intense, unearthly light for a fracture of a second and the black van appeared, stopping in the middle of the hall.

All doors of the vehicle opened and the extraction team disembarked. Additionally, an already on standby standing medical team that was led by a small, blonde, young woman took care of Max, who was laying on a gurney.

As soon as Sanders spotted Stransky, he darted towards him, took the blond man by his collar and held his Colt 1911 in his face.

"You fucking son of a bitch, I ordered you to avoid unnecessary casualties and to only use the Taser bullets. I'm gonna make sure that you'll suffer for this!"

"Try it…Colonel!" Stransky spit into his face, letting a crazy snickering follow.

Unimpressed by this behavior, Mr. Wilcock walked over to the medical team, speaking to the woman with the blond, into a bun bounded hair.

"How is she, Dr. Marsh?"

"She's alive…barely," Dr. Marsh answered, checking the brunette girl on the gurney. "What the…?! What asshole shot three of these bullets into her chest?" she yelled, gazing furiously at the man of the extraction team.

Grabbing Stransky, the Colonel threw him right in front of the doctor's feet. "This piece of shit here!"

"You could've killed her!" she yelled into his face, but only received a "So?", which was answered with a punch into the blond man's face. Now rubbing her right hand, Dr. Marsh turned towards her team again. "We need to get her to the medical section, stat!"

The medics rolled Max out of the room in a fast pace, leaving the other men behind.

"How's this possible?" Stransky asked as he got up with a groan, his lower lip bleeding, "I shot her three times in the chest. This would've killed everyone."

"Mr. Stransky," Wilcock said as he turned towards him, "Your reputation preceded you. Do you really think I would've let one single life round close to you, when there's so much at stake?"

"And why didn't you tell me?" the Colonel intervened, obviously pretty angry about this withheld information.

"As a military man, you would've been against taking only experimental bullets to a deadly operation. Therefore I decided to keep you unaware of that fact."

Now even more furious, the Colonel stepped closer to the old man, hissing his words at him with gritted teeth, "From the start this whole operation has been nothing more than FUBAR. I lost six good men and we only achieved a dead woman and an unconscious girl. That's…"

"None of you business anymore," interrupted him Wilcock calmly with a raised hand, "Colonel, as far as I remember, you were about to clean out your quarters. You'll leave in thirty minutes, so I guess you should hurry."

Even more enraged, Colonel Sanders turned around and left, leaving Mr. Wilcock and a snickering Viktor Stransky behind.

"Mr. Stransky," he now addressed the blonde man, "I don't know why you're laughing. You disobeyed direct orders and your job is everything else then done. So, if you want to get paid, I suggest that you head into the command center and try to find our target!"

Hearing that he was about to not get his money, Stransky mumbled some curses and left, too.

Another gateway opened and men packed with equipment appeared. The operation in Arcadia Bay was over. Now Wilcock had to find a new opportunity to seize the girl with the blue hair. Maybe he could use the other girl as bait? Maybe…

* * *

Base exterior

Scorched earth. Wasteland. A desert was merciless. Every living being that dared to enter it and wasn't prepared or would get lost, was doomed to die. So, it was only logical to build a top-secret facility right in the middle of such a deadly place. Additionally, since the Nellis Range Complex was a military test site for experimental weapons, it was also off limits for any civilian traffic, by land and air.

Downside: standing guard in such a place was boring and draining as hell. Hot climate, the same uneventful landscape and the fact that nobody ever entered this base through the front door increased the psychological pressure for the guarding soldiers even more. Not even the high payment they received could entirely wipe out this fact.

Captain Hastings, a former high decorated Veteran of the U.S. military was sitting in one of the guard towers which were flanking the front gate, reading some reports on his high-end tablet. Like the other soldiers, he was dressed in desert-camouflaged uniform. Lucky for him, the interior of the tower had an air-conditioning system, so that the guards could cool down from time to time.

' _Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Why do we write these fucking reports anyway if there's nothing to write about?'_

"Captain, Sir!" called a soldier who was scanning the terrain with a binocular.

"What is it, soldier? Found a damsel in distress?" Hastings scoffed, almost a bit relieved to have some entertainment.

"Uh…that's not far from the truth, Sir." answered the black-skinned soldier.

Sighing annoyingly, the Captain got up, walked over to the soldier and ripped the binocular out of his hand. "Let's hope that you're not pullin' my leg here, Private!"

As he scanned the landscape with the optical devise at first, Hastings spied nothing more than the same tediousness, until he saw a shimmering blue spot. "What the…?!" he murmured, immediately calling another soldier, "Sergeant Evers, take your spotter, get on that AMR of yours and confirm my sighting!"

"Sir, yes, Sir!" answered a young soldier, jumping up right away and took position on his 50 cal. rifle, his spotter at his side. The steel plate, which covered the loophole, was removed to give the team a full sight.

"Quadrant eight, Evers!"

The sniper-team took aim at the said coordinates, communicating with each other the way they were trained.

"Confirmation, Sir! One unidentified person, heading our way. Distance…one point two miles."

"Damn tourists!" the Captain cursed with gritted teeth, knowing that they were allowed to shoot every unauthorized person on sight without a warning, "Get me Command on the radio, stat!"

* * *

Medical section

Her body hurt as well as her head. To move or even opening her eyes seemed like an impossible task, letting Max groan as she tried it. So, instead of trying the unthinkable, she focused on recalling how she came into this situation.

She remembered her date with Chloe and how great it had ended. Oh, it had been the best sex she had in years. Chloe, obviously a bit less experienced than she and Victoria, had knocked Max's ex-girlfriend off the throne easily. Max also remembered that they wanted to go another round, but…then there had been this strange sound and she wanted to look what it was and then…there were these strange masked men at the bottom of the stairs, and then…? Did she simply dream it? Did she just fall down the stairs? This would at least explain the pain she was in.

"Ugh, Ch-Chloe?" she groaned, once more trying to move, this time with more success.

"Hush, Maxine. Take it easy!"

Hearing an unknown, yet sweet voice unexpectedly, Max's eyes snapped open and she sat up straight in merely a second, ignoring all the pain and nausea. Her gaze fell onto a blonde woman, who smiled at the young girl warmly and touched her chest softly, pressing her back on the bed. Max didn't know how and why, but somehow this touch calmed and soothed her right away, making her pain to vanish in a second.

"Wh-who are you? Where am I?"

"I'm Dr. Kate Marsh, and you're at a secret research facility of a non-official conglomerate, called _Organization_. Silly name, I know."

If she wouldn't be so afraid and laying half-naked in the middle of an artificial-lightened room with concrete walls and no window, Max would've laughed at Dr. Marsh, asking her about a hidden cam and if Chloe was involved in that prank. But somehow she felt that the blonde was telling the truth.

"How did I get here? And…where's Chloe?"

"Maxine…"

"Just Max, never Maxine!"

"Alright…Max, I'll explain everything in time, but right now I need you to get dressed and ready to go!" Kate hurried, helped Max up and led her to a pile of prepared clothes.

* * *

Command center

"Still nothing, Sir!" said a man in front of a big screen, the west coast of the U.S. shown on it.

"Are the sensor working properly again?" asked Wilcock in return, his hands clenching. For hours they were now looking for any sign of the blue-haired girl, but came out with nothing.

"Yes, Sir! We don't know what caused the anomaly, but it wasn't a hardware problem."

"It was her," he concluded with gritted teeth, "She's way more powerful than we thought."

"Sir," another soldier now called, "I've got Captain Hastings on the radio."

"Put him on speakers!" Wilcock ordered, already having a bad feeling, "Captain, report!"

" _Sir,"_ it chimed from the speakers, _"We've got an unidentified person, approaching the base. Looks like a lost tourist."_

"You know the orders, Captain." Wilcock stated nonchalantly, already focused on his former problem again.

" _Yes, Sir!"_

* * *

Base exterior

"Shit!" Hastings muttered under his breath. He knew what he had to do now. The orders were clear and left no space for interpretation. Internally he cited one last prayer for this poor soul that was searching salvation and was about to receive an ugly end. "Sergeant Evers!"

"Sir?"

"Ready your gun and take aim!"

"Sir, I…" stammered the sniper, but was interrupted in his words right away.

"Sergeant," Hastings gaze now almost pierced the young soldier, "This was an order!"

"Yes, Sir!"

The sniper-team got ready. Data, like distance, elevation and wind speed were exchanged, until a "Target in sight, awaiting orders!" chimed.

The radio still in his hand, Captain Hasting gazed at the far away silhouette for some time, squeezing the com device tightly, before he yelled a loud "Fire!"

With a deafening bang the rifle spit out its deadly projectile, letting it fly towards the target.

Now glancing through the binocular once more, Hastings waited for the poor bastard to hit the ground, but to his own surprise he walked on. Shooting a rifle at such distances and under such extreme conditions took a lot of experience. Hitting a target right on the spot was even harder. Therefore, the Captain remained calm, not blaming the young Sergeant.

"You missed, boy. Again! Fire when ready!"

"Yes, Sir!"

Once more, the gun released its deadly load, dust which had covered the tower and was blown up by the released gases almost took the Captain's sight. But as it had settled, his eyes widened.

"Sergeant, you missed again!"

"I-I don't understand, Sir! I…"

"Shut it!" he yelled, now speaking into his radio, "Sergeant Troy, your turn! Fire when ready!"

A few minutes later, another shot chimed from the other guard tower nearby and, once more, without any effect.

"AGAIN!" Hasting now yelled into the radio, answered by another shot, which also had no result.

Now entirely enraged, Captain Hastings pushed the call-button on the radio, ready to release a barrage of curses. He hadn't even said a word as, with a hissing sound, Sergeant Evers' and his spotter's head, plus their rifle and monocular exploded into a mixture of blood, brain, skull, bits and pieces, painting everything around them red.

Pure panic broke out inside the tower. Everyone yelled to hit the ground, and everybody did. According to the com-traffic, the same was probably going on in the other tower, too.

"Command, command! This is Hastings, we're under attack! I repeat, we're under attack!"

* * *

Nellis Range Complex, outside the facility

An ozone layer protected her pale skin from the burning sun. An air cushion under bare feet protected them from the hot sand. The air inside her protective bubble was constantly cooled down.

Slowly, Juno'ka approached the enemy's facility, knowing that they would spot her pretty soon, but she didn't care. The time of hiding was over. She could've easily landed in the middle of the base, taking them by surprise, but this would've been just too quick. No. She wanted them to see her; wanted them to witness her power; wanted them to sink in despair and fear while their inevitable death was approaching with small steps.

Suddenly, she felt a disturbance in the air. Juno'ka compressed the air molecules around her, making it like gel, and stopped the incoming projectile.

"How predictable!" she spoke to herself, moving on while three more bullets got caught in her field. "Time to send them a message of their approaching death!"

She bobbed her head slightly to one side and scanned the area with her senses. The trajectory of the bullets was still a visible trail in the air and four bright reflections, each pair very close to each other, told her that she was constantly watched by four persons and at least two of them had the capability to shoot at her. Nonetheless, she would make every bullet count, because in the end, none of them would survive her wreath anyway.

The pointy projectiles turned around, aiming now at their sources. Juno'ka's eyes and hair glowed even brighter than before and the bullets were sent on their way. A few minutes later, the sound of alarm sirens chimed from the facility, followed by a barrage of numerous loud shots. Though she knew that there was a countless number of deadly projectiles of different sizes on their way to finish her off, Juno simply grinned, awaiting them eagerly.

"So, it begins!"

* * *

Medical section

Max closed the zipper of her new grey hoodie that came with grey, tight sweatpants, which she was wearing now.

"Are you ready?" asked Dr. Marsh, who had turned away for the time, Max had been changing into her new clothes.

"Yeah…kinda…" answered Max, comping with her finger through her brown hair to loosen it up a bit, "So…uhm…where are we going?"

"Listen Max, we…" began Kate to explain, but stopped right away as the alarm started to howl and the ground was slightly shaken by numerous tiny explosions.

" _Attention! The base is under attack! Every non-fighting personal stays at their post until further notice! I repeat…"_ it chimed from the base's PA.

"Wh-what's going on?" asked Max almost panicky and it was again Kate's touch that calmed her down immediately.

The blonde looked deep and sternly into her eyes, letting the young girl know how serious the situation was. "Max, we need to go, now!"

They hadn't even reached the door as a vast explosion on the surface shook the ground so hard, that both women lost their balance and hit the floor with a shriek.

* * *

Command center

"Sir, we've got a signal!" called the man at the screen towards Mr. Wilcock, who immediately walked over to him.

"Where's she?" he said, but didn't receive an answer right away, "Soldier!" As the old man gazed over the soldier's shoulder, he froze, his words failing him out of surprise.

"She's here…" whispered the soldier, both he and Wilcock gazing stunned at the screen, which showed their base and a bright blue dot just under a mile away. Eventually, only Captain Hastings' voice over the PA let them snap out of it.

" _Command, command! This is Hastings, we're under attack! I repeat, we're under attack! I got four men down. Probably multiple hidden enemies, aiming at our position."_

"Set the base on high-alert!" Wilcock commanded loudly, before he reached for the radio, "Hastings, it's just the girl! I want you to shoot everything at her that we have. I repeat, everything! Machine guns, mortars, artillery shells, rockets! I want you to blast her into oblivion!"

" _Yes, Sir!"_

The bases alert began to chime along with small detonations of the artillery, followed by a repeating speech through the facility's PA.

" _Attention! The base is under attack! Every non-fighting personal stays at their post until further notice! I repeat…"_

"I want visual on the screen what's going on out there!" was Wilcock's next order and a big screen on the wall came to life, but it didn't show what he wanted to see. The enemy was still alive, and what she was about to do left everyone in the entire command center tremble in fear, and lose their hope. That fact was a moment later underlined by a vast explosion.

* * *

Base exterior

" _Hastings, it's just the girl! I want you to shoot everything at her that we have. I repeat, everything! Machine guns, mortars, artillery shells, rockets! I want you to blast her into oblivion!"_

"Yes, Sir!" answered Hastings through the radio and stood up, trying to ignore the bloody mess close to him. The bases alert began to howl, telling him that they were under high-alert and everyone was ordered to take position. He changed the channel on his radio, so that every CO could hear him. "Attention! This is Captain Hastings; I want concentrated fire on the target. Fire at will!"

Immediately, every heavy ordinance began to fire. The air was filled with metal and sulfuric smoke from the propellant, while the bulletproof glass of the tower vibrated from the pressure waves.

Captain Hastings gazed through the binocular once more, awaiting the target to vanish into a column of dirt, smoke and shrapnel, but nothing like this happened. The Captain almost dropped his optical device as he saw that every projectile had been stopped and hovered over the enemy.

Then, the deadly load started to swirl around. In the meanwhile, every gun had stopped firing, their COs and soldiers probably witnessing this spectacle, too. All those grenades and bullets were now forming a big sphere, and as it flew towards the base, all Hastings could do was to take down the binocular and wait for the impact, his lips leaving one last screamed order.

"GET DOOOOOWN!"

A moment later, his world was filled with deafening noise, dust, pain, screams of other soldiers and, eventually, darkness.

* * *

Command center

Panic and fear filled the entire room. As Arlen Wilcock finally managed to get up he saw that desperation had taken everyone into a tight grip. People were screaming, praying or trying to leave, but because of the alarm, the vast blast door of the command center had been sealed shut. Only by disabling the security protocol it was possible to open it again. Right now, his most important task was to regain control over the situation.

He grabbed the mic for the PA and yelled into it.

"ATTANTION!"

Immediately the panicky screaming died as every pair of eyes gazed at him, ready to receive new orders.

"Everyone, get back to your post. We're under attack and have trained this scenario more than once."

"B-but this?!" a young soldier spoke, his voice dripping with fear, "This is only one…thing, and it just threw everything we shot at it back at us. We need to evacuate, we…"

The soldier wasn't even able to finish his sentence as a shot chimed through the room and penetrated his skull, leading once more to panic.

"SILENCE!" yelled Wilcock again, putting back his gun into the holster under his jacket, "Everybody back to their station, now! I want a full evaluation of the damage and the situation at the surface. I want every available soldier in combat. She mustn't reach the command center!"

"Sir," now another soldier reported, "The entire security system at the surface is dead. The gate's down and twenty percent of the base's external structure is completely destroyed."

"Get me a satellite image and find out where she is. Engage _Operation Exodus_ and start to transfer the entire data to the main server."

"Yes, Sir!"

"Is there any word from Captain Hastings?"

"No, Sir! I tried to reach him several times, but…"

"We need to assume that he's dead. Radio the guards in the medical wing and tell them to secure the Caulfield girl, maybe we can use her as leverage."

"Yes, Sir!"

"And get me Stransky on the radio! He can make himself useful for once!"

" _Attention all personal! Operation Exodus engaged. All non-fighting personal proceed to the transfer-room for evacuation! I repeat…"_

* * *

Base exterior

Every inch of his body hurt. The taste of blood was filling his mouth. Breathing was hard, because his nose was entirely blocked by concrete dust.

Slowly, Captain Hastings fought his way back to full consciousness. At first he tried to remember what had happened and therefore to assess the situation. He recalled the explosion. How his body had been thrown through the air. And then he'd felt only pain and pressure. He was probably buried under a pile of debris. Still, he needed to get up and fight. And in order to do that, the Captain had to orientate first.

As he cautiously opened his eyes, feeling all dizzy and disoriented, Hastings realized that he was still out in the open, the blue sky right above him, but he couldn't move. So, it's even possible that his body took a heavy hit and he was even paralyzed.

He suddenly remembered Afghanistan. The heavy fights. The one time an RPG had hit the wall beside him and it had collapsed. He had been buried there, too. At least it had felt similar.

Suddenly, there was a strong pull and some strange noises. So, his hearing was probably fucked by the explosion, too. He was lifted up. A good sign! Some of his men were still alive and helped, so the fight wasn't over, yet. There was still the possibility to win this! Or was there?

His hope was utterly destroyed as he was forced to glance into a pair of deep blue glowing eyes. Hastings reckoned that the girl in front of him wasn't older than twenty years, tops. She was only dressed in a loose, blue shirt and some purple panties. All-in-all, a cute girl. If it weren't for her glowing eyes, the glowing hair, the emotionless expression and her capability to throw tons of life ammunition back at them.

Hastings figured that it had been probably her, who had pulled him out of the debris with her powers. The same powers that brought him in this situation in the first place and this meant that he was at the girl's mercy. He wanted to say something, but failed. Not that it would've mattered anyway, because the young woman just let him drop like a bag of potatoes.

To his horror, he landed right beside a beheaded corpse. Poor bastard must've lost his head during the explosion. But what surprised him was the fact that this dead man had been in the rank of a Captain, and Hastings had been the only Captain who had duty at the surface during that time. Slowly, he put the pieces together and the name tag on the body validated that this was in fact his own body.

Now that shock and certainty were finally settling in, his vision blurred and the everlasting darkness put its cold arms around him.

* * *

Medical wing

"Wh-what the freakin' hell was that?!" Max asked with a groan as Dr. Marsh helped her up.

" _Attention all personal! Operation Exodus engaged. All non-fighting personal proceed to the transfer-room for evacuation! I repeat…"_

"That's our sign to get out of here!" responded the blonde, but as she was about to reach for the door's handle it got opened and one soldier entered while another one stayed outside to guard the door. Assuming that they were here to lead them to the transfer room, Kate grabbed Max's hand and wanted to walk past the first soldier, but was stopped as he blocked the exit. "What's that suppose to mean? We need to evacuate! She's a civilian and…"

"Sorry ma'am, the girl needs to stay! Orders from high above!" the heavy armed man simply answered, "But you're free to go!"

Clenching her jaw, Kate let go of the young girl's hand and gave the soldier a stern glare. "Very well," she calmly said, and reached under her white coat. Not expecting any further resistance or problems, the uniformed man just stepped a bit aside to let the doctor leave. He, however, was so off-guard that he didn't realize how Dr. Marsh brought forth a strange looking pistol and shot the soldier right in the head, who just crumbled to the ground with a steaming, glowing hole in his skull. The second soldier hadn't even turned around as the same fate awaited him.

Completely startled by this act of violence, Max shrieked and stumbled a few steps back. "Why the fuck did you do that?!" she yelled at the doctor, who just gazed at her emotionlessly.

"If we stay, you're dead. As I already said, I'll explain everything to you later. Now come, we don't have much time!" Kate urges, once more reaching the brunette girl her hand, which she only took reluctantly.

* * *

Base interior

" _Stransky! Stransky, come in!"_ chimed the yelling voice of Wilcock from Viktor Stransky's radio. The mercenary took one last sip of his coke to flush down the remnants of his meal, burped in satisfaction and now slowly reached for the call-button.

"Stransky here!" he nonchalantly answered, almost grinning that everything seemed to go to hell.

" _Stransky, this blue-haired bitch is attacking our base! You want to kill someone? Now's you chance. Go to the armory and get yourself what you need, and then finish this cunt off! You have free hand how you're doing it!"_

Now grinning even more that Wilcock was depending on him, the blonde man couldn't suppress an amused chuckle as he gave his answer.

"What's it worth to you? I mean, it is very dangerous and your men are about to fuck up and…"

" _I double your payment!"_

"And the brunette! I want to have her, too!" he pushed, knowing that Wilcock was at a loss. Just imagine how he would play with this brown-haired cunt; how he would have his way with her before he would slowly finish her off, sent shivers of excitement over his spine. Eventually, Wilcock couldn't afford to say no.

For some moments there was silence before Wilcock finally answered.

" _You're a sick piece of shit! But done! You can have her, once you did your job."_

"Excellent!" Stransky cheered and joyfully jumped up, "I call you as soon as I've finished my job, then."

He turned off his radio, not waiting for a response and walked towards the armory, whistling a joyful song. For him, the job was as good as done, because how hard can it be to kill a little girl?

* * *

Base exterior

"There she is!" yelled a soldier and started to fire his gun. A moment later, the very same bullets that were meant to kill her, pulverized his head instead.

Another man shot with a rocket launcher. The projectile stopped and Juno'ka altered the chemical composition of the explosive, making it more powerful. She sent it towards a tank that was waiting behind the next corner and let it explode in a vast fireball.

Multiple other enemies fired at her while they yelled orders, curses or even simply screamed out of pain. They all died by their own bullets or were ripped apart by Juno'ka. One soldier, who was mounting the 50-cal machinegun of a Humvee, fired his entire belt of 250 rounds at the young girl. She simply turned the bullets into razor-sharp shards and threw them back. Both, the vehicle and the soldier were shredded into pieces.

She was unstoppable. It seemed like nothing could prevent her from reaching the source of the data streams she could literally see in the air. But then, there was a loud shot and she felt immediately that something was different about this incoming bullet.

* * *

Base interior, Armory

It was like a neat little shopping tour through his favorite convenience store with the ground shaking explosions on the surface as the calming background music.

Still whistling a happy song, Stransky walked down the rows filled with a lot of guns. M4, G36, SCAR, M16, G3, M249 SAW, everything a gun-freak's heart with the need for firepower desired. He even passed grenade- and rocket launchers, but those weren't the weapons he searched for. No. Stransky, since his first deployment in the field involved into covert ops and close combat, preferred smaller arms with a tad of an exotic punch against body armor, like an MP7 or a P90.

He chose an MP7 with Penetrator-rounds and was thinking to add some explosive to his cart as he stopped at an ammo shelve with the inscription _anti-shield bullets (experimental)_ and gazed with a grin at the strange looking .50 BMG rounds. He really wanted to make sure that this blue-haired bitch would bite the dust and word was that she could stop bullets. But this ammunition was usually fired by heavy AMRs and M2 machine guns, none of them practical for close range. So, Stransky was about to let his plan slip as, suddenly, his sight caught another bunch of guns near by. Bulky and heavy WTS pistols for .50 BMG rounds, ready for use.

With another joyfully tone on his lips, he grabbed one of the heavy guns and started to get used to the weight and the bulkiness. It wasn't very comfortable and the recoil would probably be far stronger than of a .50 Desert Eagle, but as long as it would do the job, Stransky didn't care.

He loaded and shouldered the guns, packed some ammo into the pouches of his new combat vest and left the armory.

"Thanks, boy!" he said to the armory's guard, who's sitting lifeless in his chair with a bullet hole in his forehead. Stransky simply hadn't had the time to argue with the guard or to let him ask for Wilcock's approval. Everything was about to go to hell anyway, so why bother about another dead man?

On his way to the surface, Stransky spied the Caulfield girl and another woman, who seemed to be a doctor from her attire, running right in front of him before they headed into a different deserted hallway and for a moment he considered to follow them, but first things first. Wilcock promised him the girl anyway and even if she'd try to escape, she wouldn't come that far. That's why he kept on focusing on killing his target and would later get his well-deserved payment later.

By the time he'd reached the elevator, another big explosion shook the entire ground, telling the mercenary that the fight on the surface was still heavy. And as the doors of the lift slide open, the intensive stench and sound of the ongoing battle swooped against him and filled him with even more joy.

Stransky stepped out of the elevator and headed outside. What he saw let his heart skip a beat. The entire area was covered with debris and metal parts, buildings were merely ruins and corpses and body parts were scattered all over the place. He had always wished to participate in at least one big battle of one of the two World Wars, where huge armies had clashed against each other with thousands of dead and a devastated field full of rotting corpses. His great-grandfather and grandfather had been lucky to witness such greatness, but not him. Modern wars had always been about high-tech weapons and small combats. Guerilla warfare and long-distance skirmishes. Nothing big. But this here, this was a true fight against a powerful, merciless and trained enemy, not just some kids who can't even hold their guns steady.

He moved swiftly between the debris and ruined buildings, always on the hunt for his prey. Eventually, Stransky simply needed to follow the gunshots and soon, he'd found her.

She was just about to finish off another bunch of soldiers and therefore gave Stransky the chance to witness her perfection of killing. It was beautiful, and if this would've been a dream, he would've married and fucked this powerful cunt right away. But sadly, this was reality and he had a job to do.

With professionally movements he took the .50 BMG pistol from his shoulder and took aim at her head. Being sure that the anti-shield bullet would do its job, he squeezed the trigger with delight and already imagined what he would do with his payment.

* * *

Base exterior, service-elevator entrance

The doors glided open and revealed a picture of horror to the two women. The destruction, the stench, the dead. Everything almost let Max lose her conscious. The young girl gagged and had to muster all of her composure to not throw up right away, whereas Dr. Marsh just gazed at the entire scenery stoically.

"We need to move!" she said, once more taking Max's hand and led her further on. Gunshots could be heard in the distance, but they faded eventually. Between the ruins Max could see a bright, blueish glow and she wanted nothing more than to stop and take a closer look. But Kate's grip and pull was way too strong for her to resist.

They finally reached a mainly intact building. After letting go of Max, Kate opened one of the metallic gates and revealed a Humvee. Then another single shot chimed, which made both look in its direction for a moment, Max already having the feeling that something was wrong here.

"Quick, get inside!" Kate hurried and the brunette girl, now happy that she hadn't to run anymore and was still able to leave this messed up situation behind, embarked the vehicle. Dr. Marsh quickly started the engine – Max didn't even dare to ask why the blonde had the keys for that bulky thing – and punched the gas. After they'd maneuvered through the debris, Max and Kate eventually approached a small gate in a fence, but the doctor didn't stop. She simply rammed it open and both now drove deep into the desert.

* * *

Base exterior

The bullet stopped merely an inch in front of her face. A close call, but not because it came out of surprise. No. This bullet was special. It emitted a field of neutrons around itself, making it able to fly a lot faster and to penetrate small, portable shields. Juno'ka recognized this technology, because she had been one of the heads who'd developed it in the first place.

"Neph'arim technology…interesting!" she said as she inspected the projectile closely, scanning its crude, imperfect construction. She knew that her opponent probably had more of them at his disposal, and was proven right as another projectile approached. This time she was prepared and stopped it sooner.

She scanned the area with her senses and realized that the shots had been fired from two different positions, yet they were close enough to be originated from one person. Her enemy was smarter this time. Changed position after a shot, but it wouldn't give him any further advantage.

Once more, using her senses, she found chemical traces of the man's pheromones and followed the trail they're leaving with her sight. But something seemed familiar. By breaking down the chemical composition of the pheromones, Juno'ka realized that this man had been at Max's house when she'd been shot…No, worse! This man was her murderer!

Deep burning anger let the girl's hair and eyes glow even brighter. She pressed the two floating bullets in front of her into two sharp discs and sent them on their way.

* * *

"Shit!" hissed Stransky, his eyes wide open in surprise as he realized that the bullet hadn't reached its target.

Knowing that his position might've been discovered, he moved to another one. Maybe this very first bullet didn't function correctly – they were still experimental after all – therefore he would give it another try, before thinking about another solution for the problem.

Once more, he took aim, breathed calmly in and out, and squeezed the trigger gently. With another loud bang the projectile was on its way and once again, it got stopped.

"Fucking cunt!" he cursed now and threw the heavy gun plus its ammunition away, losing some dead weight. Then Stransky drew his MP7 and closed in on the girl, trying to get her from behind. Quickly he had reached the perfect position for sneak attack.

' _This fucking bitch doesn't even know where I am.'_ he thought with an internal chuckle, took her in sight and was about to release an entire magazine of 4.5 millimeter bullets into her back as he suddenly heard a metallic whirring sound passing him. At first, giving it not much attention, Stransky soon realized that he had no control over his hands anymore. But before he could ask himself why, his arms dropped to the ground. They had been cut-off clean and the wounds were now sealed by two metallic discs as they literally melted together with his flesh, making the blonde man scream in agony as he was lifted off the ground.

"So, you're the one who shot her," chimed a distorted voice right in front of him. Still breathing heavily and his shaking body flooded by adrenaline, Stransky gazed into a pair of blue burning eyes.

"F-fuck you, cunt! I'm gonna rip your glowing eyes out and…"

Once more he screamed out loud as his tongue got ripped out and landed right beside his arms, making him shut up.

"You don't deserve a quick death," said the girl emotionlessly, leaning closer in, "You need to see it coming long before it embraces you. You need to know that it's inevitable. You need to scream out your lungs and release all your feces before your shame of behaving like a low animal will be ended by a gruesome death! Say," Now she leaned even more in, her voice nothing more than whiff, "What do you think how long it will take you to ascend up to 15,000 feet and then fall back until you hit the ground again?"

Silence. He wasn't able to answer anyway and the only thing he felt right now was fear and deep burning desperation upon his inevitable end.

"You better start counting!"

As he was foretold, Stransky screamed out his lungs as he was lifted higher and higher, the girl soon only a tiny bright, blue spot.

* * *

Command center

"Reports!" shouted Wilcock, gazing around the room, "I want to know what's going on up there!"

"Sir," a soldier answered him, "We lost contact to all units and we can't find the target anymore!"

"And what about Stransky and the Caulfield girl?" the old man asked further, but only received more shaking heads. "Alright," he then said calmly with a sigh, "how's Operation Exodus coming?"

"Sir, all non-fighting personal has been evacuated and 72.5 percent of the data as been transferred!"

"Very good!" Wilcock spoke with at least some relief, "Looks like we have to sit this one out until reinforcements arrive. Just make sure that…"

"Sir!" another soldier interrupted, "Data stream has been cut and the sensors are going haywire!"

"What the…" Wilcock started, but the cracking of the base's PA let him go silent and the all too familiar distorted voice sent a cold shiver down his spine.

" _I know you're in there! I can smell your fear. I can feel your desperation upon your inevitable death. Prepare to witness the true power of a Neph'arim!"_

Once more, pure panic filled the room. Orders were screamed, prayers were whispered, and tears were flowing. Most of the soldiers inside the room drew their sidearm and took cover, preparing for combat. Only Wilcock's yelled "SILENCE!" broke the chaos and led to some order. At least enough to say some words.

"This blast door was built to withstand a direct hit of a thirty kiloton nuke. Maybe she has cut us off, but she won't be able to come in here. So, everybody back to their station and try to fix the damned data-…"

His voice suddenly failed as the big metallic door began to creak and slowly started to glow red. Everybody in the command center watched with eyes wide open how the glow changed it's color, from red to orange to yellow and, eventually, to blinding white.

"Th-this can't be!" the old man murmured, gazing at a display which showed that the door's core temperature was by over 30,000 Kelvin. "Get away from that door!" Wilcock yelled, but for the two guards and three other men close-by came this warning too late. Their flesh literally melted away in seconds, accompanied by their short agonizing screams for help. Eventually, the door melted away too, which left a big hole in it. Wilcock knew that they all should be dead by now, like the five other men, but somehow the heat seemed to only be effective right at the blast door.

Those who were still able to react, started to shoot into the newly formed now blue glowing and steaming entrance, but got cut down by their own bullets right away. Others died, because slim, pointy needles of molten metal pierced all of their vital organs at once. In the end, only Arlen Wilcock remained, stumbling backwards as Juno'ka emerged through the steaming entrance, a very small, blinding, blue shining object hovering right beside her. It followed every one if her steps like a pet.

She came closer, scanning every bit of the command center and as she'd reached the frightened old man, Juno'ka simply stood there gazing at him deeply. Despite all the power she'd already demonstrated, she looked pale while sweat ran down her face, indicating that all this must've been very exhausting for her. Yet, she didn't show any weakness. Minutes passed in silence, until the girl just turned away and wandered around the room, the blue light source and Wilcock's gaze still following her.

"Over six months ago I gave you a promise. I told you that I'd hunt you down if you don't leave Chloe alone or hurt innocent people. You didn't listen, now here I am." She stopped in front of a monitor and touched the display. "Interesting," Juno'ka then continued, "All this knowledge. You tried to transfer it to an external device you'd call a _server_ , but I couldn't let you do it. I reckoned that you try to reverse-engineering Neph'arim and other extraterrestrial technology. Technology which is far beyond humanity's capabilities. So, where did you get it from?"

"We…" Wilcock began to answer, coughing once to steady is fear-drenched voice, "We're just a small R 'n' D branch. We only receive the technology or construction plans, seldom we need to get it on our own, and then…"

As Juno'ka raises her hand he went silent again, "So, you don't know where it comes from." and got a shaking head as an answer. "Humans," Juno'ka scoffed, "You always think that you're the greatest creation in this universe. Your race is so young, yet so arrogant. People like you make me want to eradicate your entire race from existence, yet…people like Chloe and Max showed me how passionate and emotional you can be." A soft smile appeared on her lips and all the bitterness vanished from her tone. "It reminded me of my bond-mate. The deep feelings I once had for her and…and for…" Her voice broke for a moment before her fist hit the console in front of her, turning it into a pile of junk. "YOU TOOK IT FROM US!" she yelled, her eyes burning with anger as she gazed at Wilcock and lifted him up, closing in slowly, "You destroyed a wonderful bond between Chloe and Max! You killed another innocent girl without any reason, and now you'll pay for that!"

"B-but she's alive!" said the old man, his voice trembling out of fear.

Immediately Juno'ka stopped, her eyes wide opened out of surprise. "What?!"

"The girl. We didn't kill her. We just stunned her with some new developed ammunition. That's all!"

"Where is she?"

"I-I don't know. We lost contact to the soldiers who were guarding her. But if you didn't kill them…"

"…then she escaped!" completed Juno'ka his sentence, closing her eyes a moment later. Then, a warm smile appeared on her face and a joyful tone in her voice. "Yes…she escaped! I can feel her and…she's far away enough already."

"You see, she's alive. Now you don't have to do this anymore. You can go to her now and I promise that…"

"Are you begging for your life?" Juno'ka scoffed with amusement before going stern again, "You're so pathetic! I already told you that your death is inevitable, so be grateful that I give you the possibility to prolong your demise and face it with at least a bit dignity!"

Now the small blueish ball floated closer an Wilcock instinctively knew that would be the cause of his demise.

"Do you know what this?" she asked, giving it a short glimpse. Lacking any answer, the old man simply shook his head. "It's what you would call a blue giant. Of course in a much smaller scale."

"B-but that's impossible!"

"Nothing is impossible as long as all required parameters are given. I only had to accumulate enough matter to start a fusion-reaction and keep it inside a vacuumed magnetic field, and as long as this sun stays inside the induced shield around it, no radiation will harm us whatsoever." she said nonchalantly, before shifting her gaze entirely to the small, blue star, "It's quite useful to be able to build such an artificial sun, especially for research purposes or for melting through a blast door. However…" she now glanced sternly at the old man once more, "It's very exhausting to keep it at a constant equilibrium. Do you know what happens, if only one parameter is altered?"

As an educated man and scientist, Arlen Wilcock knew the answer, and he didn't like it at all. "Y-you're crazy! You can't do this! If a blue giant collapses, it'll…"

"Probably form a singularity or at least an accumulation of neutron-emitting matter, yes. But at this scale, radiation, gravity and the surrounding atmosphere it will be destabilized in merely milliseconds before it would be able to accumulate any more matter for its survival. So," Juno'ka straightened herself, her expression now once again emotionless, "Any last words?"

"Wait! Don't do this! I-I can tell you everything! The location of our headquarter. Our other facilities. The names of…"

Arlen Wilcock wasn't even able to finish his sentence as the 40,000 Kelvin hot plasma dissolved his body into its basic components. Juno'ka had simply closed her eyes and rode the pressure wave, being engulfed by the inferno. Entirely relieved that it was over now, she smiled and followed the bond which was binding her and Max together. Now she knew what had driven her to Arcadia Bay and she would do anything to find out why she was bonded to the brunette girl.

* * *

Nellis Range Complex, Nevada

Three miles away from the research facility

The Humvee drove with high-speed along a small dusty road further away from the compound. Max had to hold on very tightly as the army vehicle hit some rocks and bumps on its way. The young girl didn't know where she and Dr. Marsh were heading to, but at the moment she didn't care as long as it was as far away from her captors as possible.

More than a few times she glimpsed at the blonde woman beside her. A woman who had killed two men in cold blood, but also had helped her. Maybe now was the time to ask what the hell was going on.

"Uhm…Dr. Marsh?" Max asked a bit shyly, not knowing if she was even allowed to talk.

"Just call me Kate, okay!" was the plain answer, telling the young brunette that she was allowed to keep on speaking.

"Wh-what the hell's going on here? Wh-who were those men and why did you kill them? Are you even a doctor?"

"Combat-medic," Kate simply pointed out, her gaze still fixed on the road, "I'm actually a combat-medic for the _Galactic Alliance,_ a confederation of multiple planets and races throughout our entire galaxy. I had infiltrated this facility as a doctor to find out what they're up to and, if necessary, to sabotage their work."

At first, Max was just too dumbfounded to answer, until she eventually snapped out of it and yelled at Kate with an angry frown. "Waitwaitwait! Whoa, time-out! Combat-medic? Galactic Alliance? Other races and planets? Are you fucking cereal?! Hey, if don't wanna tell me what the fucking hell went on back there, fine! But don't bullshit me with this fucked up sci-fi crap, just because I'm a geek!"

"Listen Max," Kate answered calmly, obviously unimpressed by the girl's outbreak, "I don't care if you believe me or not. Fact is, if I hadn't gotten us out of there, we…"

A sudden flash, followed by a deafening explosion and an earthquake interrupted Kate's speech and as she looked into the rearview mirror she saw a giant fireball rising into the blue desert sky.

"HOLD ON!" she yelled, and steered the vehicle behind a rock that was a bit smaller than the truck, hoping that it would be enough to protect them. The heat inside the vehicle rose very fast, turning it into a sauna, and not a second later a vast pressure wave hit the Humvee, almost knocking it over. The only thing Max could do in this chaos was to hold on to a grip beside her and scream her fear out.

This eerie moment lasted for just a few seconds, but it felt like hours. Eventually, the vehicle came to a rest. Kate and Max, both breathing heavily, gazed at each other for a few seconds, before the woman started the engine again and cautiously steered the vehicle back onto the road. Completely engulfed by dust, stirred up by the shock wave, they drove slowly until the sight increased again.

Max just wanted to ask another bunch of questions as Kate suddenly hit the breaks hard. Following the doctor's gaze, Max couldn't believe her eyes. Right on the road in front of them stood Chloe, her hair and eyes glowing with an intense blue.

"Chloe?!" she gasped in unbelief and then realized the shuffling close to her. Kate hissed a curse, which Max couldn't understand, drew her pistol and shot right through the truck's bulletproof windshield in a fast pace, realizing pretty soon that every one of her plasma projectiles had already stopped before reaching their target.

"NO!" Max yelled at Kate, trying to grab the gun as, with a loud creak of metal, the passenger's door was ripped out of its hinges and the young girl was pulled outside, shrieking as she tried to struggle against the invisible forces that held her tightly. She came to a halt right beside her girlfriend and was put down again, cautiously.

Immediately, Kate jumped out of the truck, took cover behind the door and aimed at the blue-haired girl. "Let her go!" she yelled, ready to shoot, although she knew that the gun wouldn't do her opponent any harm.

But Chloe stayed silent. She only bobbed her head to one side a bit and out of nowhere, Kate felt a strong grip enveloping her weapon. Although she tried to fight it, this invisible force turned the gun towards her face. The blonde groaned as she mustered all her strength, but to no avail. In horror she had witness how the end of the barrel now pointed at her face and she got forced to pull the trigger.

Max's gaze shifted between Chloe and Kate several times and right away she realized that her girlfriend was about to kill the woman, who had saved her.

"Chloe, stop!" she screamed, fearing the moment it would be too late, "Chloe, she saved me!"

"She's one of them, Max!" Chloe replied with distorted voice, "She needs to die, like the others! They need to be eradicated or else…"

"No!" Max interrupted with a loud scream, grabbing Chloe by her shoulders and turned her around, watching her watery eyes directly into her glowing ones. "Chloe, stop this, please! This is not you! My Chloe was caring and kind-hearted. She never would've hurt someone." Then, she embraced her girlfriend tightly, crying all the stress she had to endure into her shoulder, "I want my Chloe back! Please, give me my beloved Chloe back!"

For some moments, Juno'ka just stood there, entirely stunned upon the embrace. Had she gone too far? Had this entire hunt for vengeance been nothing more than a bloodbath to fulfill her – as Chloe called it – god-complex? Maybe Chloe had been right. Maybe her point of view was really nothing more than immoral and should've died with her people a long time ago. Juno'ka wanted to return the hug and let Chloe take control over her body again and therefore to give her the joy to awake in the arms of her loved one, until a sharp, hot sting in the neck let her scream out loud in agony and, eventually, lose consciousness.

"CHLOE!" Max called out as she saw her girlfriend in pain, before trying to catch her as Chloe was about to hit the ground, but she only managed to slow down the fall and lay her down. The glowing faded and soon, Max gazed at the beautiful face of her beloved Chloe, brushing a loose blue strand out of her sweaty face while inspecting a strange device that was attached to her neck. "What have you done to her?" she asked with a shivering voice and a sniff.

"Step away from her, Max!" Kate plainly replied, holding a handheld device in her one hand, while she still held the gun in her other one, aiming at Chloe's head.

"What have you done to her?" now Max repeated her question, yelling it at the blonde as she lost her composure and jumped up, but was stopped as the pistol was suddenly pointed towards her.

"She's not who you think she is. This girl's a Neph'arim. A killer on the loose and I'll take her into custody. Now step back or I'll have to use force!"

Giving the blonde the most angry glare she could muster, Max answered her with a "Fuck you!" before kneeling down beside her girlfriend again.

The air began to shimmer around them and three subspace-portals opened up at the same time. Out of them, multiple armed soldiers, dressed in heavy, futuristic black combat armor emerged, immediately taking position to secure the area. But as a woman with golden-blonde hair, wearing a lighter version of said combat armor with a sidearm on her hip and a sheathed sword on her back, plus an Asian girl, wearing casual black clothes, a jacket and a sidearm, entered the real-space, Max's jaw dropped.

"B-Brooke?! Rachel?!" she gasped, her brain almost unable to process what she was seeing.

Entirely ignoring the young brunette, Kate Marsh and Rachel exchanged some words in a for Max unknown language. Then, Rachel spoke to some of her soldiers, who immediately grabbed Chloe and dragged her to one of the portals.

"No!" Max yelled, but was held back by another soldier, whose deep, electronic voice chimed from his closed helmet. Gazing at the girl deeply with her golden glistening eyes, Rachel answered him, and Max was also dragged towards one of the portals, wiggling with all strength she could bring up, but to no avail. As soon as she entered the subspace portal, Max felt as someone had thrown her into cold water. Everything that had been in order before turned into chaos, until her mind couldn't take it anymore and she eventually drifted into darkness.


	9. Chapter 8: Supernovae

**Chapter 8: Supernovae**

8,000 B.C.

Outer arm of the Milky Way galaxy, Distance to Earth: approximately 54,000 light-years

She was standing in the middle of the bridge of her giant flagship, the _Shi'ha_ , one of the vastest and deadliest ships of the imperial forces. Her name was Amun'shek, High-Commander of the Neph'arim Empire, member of the royal family and second in line for the imperial throne.

As most of the Neph'arim, Amun'shek had a tall yet slender stature and a majestic appearance, which was even more underlined by the glowing white, light combat armor she wore. Her clothing was additionally decorated with glowing red ornaments and marks, indicating her social status and rank. Her fiery red hair, which indicated her ability to influence time, was bound into an ornate bun.

Being a wise and combat-experienced race, the Neph'arim had built the bridge of their ships deep inside the vessels, protected by a vastly amount of alloy and shields. Therefor, the bridge lacked any windows so that the vastness of space that surrounded her ship had to be projected onto the walls, the ceiling and the floor in such a high quality that it seemed like you would float through the emptiness of the cosmos. Though it took new members of the crew some time to get used to it, it held a lot of advantages in combat and navigation to have an unimpeded, three-dimensional sight.

Amun'shek typed a sequence of symbols on her holographic console and three ships, approximately 1,500 kilometers ahead of hers, were highlighted, framed and magnified. While the spaceships of the Neph'arim had a smooth and slim appearance, the other ships were bulky and martial.

A blinding white laser lance emerged from her ship and connected with the biggest of those other three for just a second, where it hit a bluish glowing barrier before it faded.

" _Enemy target's shield down to fifty-eight percent!"_ it chimed from the ship's speakers.

Then another barrage of laser lances from other Neph'arim vessels impacted on the enemy's ships. Amun'shek let her gaze wander to the other two fleets that were accompanying her own formation of six ships. The fleet with five ships slight front right belonged to her older sister, High-Commander Ra'shek. The other fleet with six vessels that was quite a bit behind hers was commanded by her bond-mate, Commander Juno'ka.

A blinking symbol on her console, signing an incoming transmission, caught her attention. Right after Amun'shek touched it, the faces of two other female Neph'arim were projected right in front of her.

One of them had a beautiful face and golden-yellow, long hairs which were artfully bound into a bun, plus a blue feather earring. It was the feather of a _Matak-Bird_ , indicating her as the direct heir for the imperial throne.

The other Neph'arim had cobalt-blue, glistening, short-cut hair and stinging blue eyes. Her angular face showed a stern, nearly emotionless demeanor.

"Status-report!" commanded High-Commander Ra'shek with a strict voice and Juno'ka was the first to answer.

"Emergency-repairs on the _Shu'ruk_ are 90 % finished. I estimate that it will take a few more hours until we're able to fall back into formation."

"Subspace-capability?"

"The ship can take another jump, if the enemy tries to evade us once more."

Now Amun'shek joined the conversation. "They will not try another jump, because they know that we will follow right away and be able to jump close enough to unleash our entire firepower on them, which would be their downfall!"

"Yes," Ra'shek stated, "So, we will continue our attacks until they have no other chance than to face their inevitable annihilation!"

" _Incoming subspace signal!"_ it suddenly chimed through the bridge, but didn't raise any alert.

"Ah, the Galactic Alliance finally decided to join the battle," mentioned Ra'shek with amusement, which faltered only a few moments later.

" _Enemy signature! I repeat: enemy vessels inbound!"_

Only a second later a loud alert sounded through the entire ship, followed by Amun's voice.

"Attention all crew, prepare for close-range combat! Security teams, standby!"

The same command was given by the other two leaders as well, and then Ra'shek spoke, "How is this possible? The Galactic Alliance was supposed to cover our backs."

"Looks like they were not up to the task," Juno threw in, whereas Amun added, "Or ignored them on purpose."

Another alert sound chimed.

" _Attention, enemy enters real-space."_

A glyph on her holo-display showed Amun'shek where the hostile ships would appear. Immediately she spun around and saw that the marked position was close to her bond-mate's fleet. With a blinding flash, five bulky ships – four medium cruisers plus one giant flagship – jumped out of the subspace and opened their fire at Juno'ka's ships.

Blinding laser-lances, burning plasma-projectiles and ballistic missiles were exchanged between the struggling ships, causing shields to flare up and hulls to melt.

Being the weakest link of her fleet, the _Shu'ruk_ became the first victim of this battle. Floating lifeless and cut into pieces through space. And Amun'shek knew that this battle was not going to her bond-mate's favor.

"Juno, hold back the enemy, I will come to your aid!"

"NO!" blared Ra's voice, the piercing gaze of the golden-haired Neph'arim fixed on her sister. "We need to follow the other fleet and finish this! Juno can take care of herself."

"I will distract them as long as I can. My ships…" Another alert interrupted Juno'ka, letting her yell some more commands to her crew, before she shifted her focus back. "The enemy has boarded our ships and tries to gain control over our weapon-systems." She closes her eyes for a short moment, inhaling deeply. "If our ships fall into enemy hands, they will be able to cause a lot of damage to your fleets, even changing the course of the battle. I…I need to stop them."

"Juno, no! Fight them!" Amun yelled desperately, leaning closer to the bluenette's hologram.

"Amun, it needs to be and you know it." Then she turns to someone off-screen. "Prepare to overload the core by 500 %!"

"Juno…" whispered the red-haired woman with welled up eyes, reaching out for the hologram.

"Farewell, Amun! Make them pay for what they have done to our people!" Juno answered, gazing stoic at the person that means everything to her, before her image suddenly vanished as hers and the enemy's fleet perished in an immense white fireball.

Feeling the bond fading, Amun'shek started to shed red-glowing tears. She knew that death wasn't the absolute end. She knew that she wasn't supposed to show weakness, but the emotional pain she was going through became so intense that she sobbed.

"She gave hers and every member of her crew's life for the greater good. There will be time to mourn, but not now! Focus on our task at hand, Amun!" chimed the empathy-less voice of Ra'shek.

Her hands clenched into fists and her hair began to glow intensively. Her entire body was flooded with Divine Energy. "No!" she spoke with gritted teeth and, on her command, time stopped.

Bringing time to a halt wasn't that difficult, but letting it flow backwards was something way more complicated. Not only that time needed to be reversed, also the physical body had to be moved in space or else it would end up in the emptiness of space or be shredded into pieces when it collided with another body after entering normal space-time again.

Amun'shek focused. She felt how the Divine Energy flowed through her body like a wild stream, ready to violently sweep her away. But she fought it, making every fiber of her being hurt. She witnessed how everything rewound; how every action became undone until she gave in to the merciless pull of real space-time, which let her trip over and hit the ground.

"Your highness!" Commander Pta'rek, Amun'shek's direct subordinate and mentor, called out, immediately helping her up.

Not replying and after shaking off her dizziness, Amun rushed towards her console and typed in new orders. She could see on the tactical hologram how her fleet left formation and headed towards a new position.

"All ships on high-alert! Prepare for close-range combat! Security teams fully armed and on stand-by!" she spoke into the com and instantly the loud alarm blared through the entire ship.

Just now she paid attention to the blinking symbol on her console and pushed it. Ra'shek's face appeared, her glimpses were piercing daggers and her tone threatening.

"Amun, get back in formation!"

Then Juno'ka's face appeared and for a short moment, Amun's breathing stops. She felt the bond again, now stronger than ever before. "Amun, what is going on?"

"It is a trap," the red-haired said eventually. "The Skyth are going to attack us from behind!"

"Impossible," Ra threw in, right before the PA of the ship chimed and interrupted her.

" _Incoming subspace signal!"_

"We scanned the entire sector. The only current subspace activities are originating from Galactic Alliance occupied space."

"Then they betrayed us," mentions Juno'ka dryly, but at the moment Amun had other things in her mind than thinking about treason.

"Who betrayed us does not matter right now. Juno, follow up with Ra's fleet and pursuit the enemy. I'll take care of the ambush."

" _Enemy signature! I repeat: enemy vessels inbound!"_

"Amun, we have our orders to…"

Ra wasn't able to finish her rant as the red-haired Neph'arim simply shut off her com channel. Only Juno'ka's connection remained.

"Juno, leave the _Shu'ruk_ behind, I'll protect her."

"Alright. And Amun…" Both gazed at each other for some time.

"Fleet is in position, High-Commander!" mentioned Pta'rek, followed by another PA call.

" _Attention, enemy enters real-space."_

Juno'ka never was a person, showing much emotion, but this time, Amun'shek saw great worry in her eyes upon the knowledge that their enemy was something the entire galaxy hadn't faced before. "…take care!"

Then, her image vanished and Amun focused on the task at hand.

"Commander, as soon as the Skyth ships enter real-space, fire everything at them! Tell the other ships to concentrate fire on the cruisers. Take them out, one-by-one! Launch Interceptors and Bombers! Close-range artillery and anti-ballistic batteries on full alert! And evacuate every unnecessary personal into the ships center and arm them to their teeth. Emergency plan _Re_ is hereby in action!"

While the orders were given through the ship's com and a strategic alarm chimed, the space in front of Amun's fleet started to shimmer, indicating the arrival of the enemy vessels.

As foreseen, the Neph'arim fleet had positioned right above the appearing ships, putting them in an already very weak spot, and then let a surprising firestorm rain upon them.

The first two cruisers – cut by the plasma-lances into multiple pieces –fell before the Skyth could even react and start to reposition their fleet. Desperately and sporadic they returned fire and began to launch their fighters, which as well were taken under heavy fire.

Another ship was disabled, the momentum and loss of maneuverability letting it collide with another one before it exploded a minute later in a vast fireball, ripping the other vessel into a gruesome death, too.

"Focus fire on their flagship!" ordered Amun'shek, seeing that the battle was coming to a quick end.

The giant enemy ship withstood the first barrage, its shield flickering and their close-range flak shooting down most of the approaching ballistic projectiles. But it was a desperate struggle. Even the biggest and strongest flagship couldn't withstand the bundled fire of several Neph'arim ships. Defeat was just inevitable and only a question of minutes.

Then, however, something unforeseen happened. Most of the ship's external hull got blasted into space by multiple tiny explosions.

"Debris of the enemy ship, inbound," reported Commander Pta'rek, "We are going to shoot down the bigger pieces and…"

"No!" contradicted Amun, zooming in on some of that junk, which also contained small capsules. "They are trying to board our ship! The debris is just a diversion. Shoot everything down!"

A real inferno enflamed in front of the _Shi'ha_ as every battery and each interceptor targeted that treacherous debris. But despite all efforts, some eventually reached the ship and let a new alarm sound.

" _Attention, multiple hull-breaches and enemy signatures in Sector 1-8 detected! All fighting personal get to your designated stations!"_

It didn't take long before first, panicky and desperate screams chimed from the com, signing that the internal battles weren't as successful as the external.

"Enemy forces are closing in on the bridge. Defense is ineffective. Reactor and Weaponry, however, are still separated from the main corridor by strategic vented compartments and not compromised."

"Commander, you are in charge!" spoke Amun and pushed some virtual symbols on her console. A hatch in the floor glided open and a rack, on which a shining white armor with red ornaments and a belt with two sheathed short-swords and a holstered pistol hung.

With trained efficiency, the red-haired woman swiftly put on the additional body-armor and the weapons-belt.

"Whatever happens, the enemy must not take over that ship! Order all other ships to move out of the blast-zone and arm the self-destruct!"

"Yes, High-Commander!" confirmed Pta'rek with a short bow of his head, and watched how Amun'shek left the bridge to join the fight.

* * *

The vast main corridor of the _Shi'ha_ was like the aorta of the ship, running through the entire vessel from front to rear. Of course, such a construction had its advantages and also disadvantages. Logistics and evacuations were easy to handle, but, once boarded, an enemy had easy access to all parts of the ship without detailed knowledge of its interior. However, it also was much simpler to defend one bottleneck than to fight on several fronts and fear ambushes at any time.

Right now, this bright enlightened corridor was filled with yelled orders and screams of pain as the remaining Neph'arim defense-forces were retreating towards the ship's bridge, the last stand before the enemy would take over control.

Shots blared and blinding plasma-projectiles were flying around, hungrily searching for some flesh they could burn through.

"Get back in formation! We need to hold this line!" yelled an older-looking male Neph'arim with green hair and beard.

"But how?" countered a brown-haired woman with a bandaged arm, shooting a barrage of shots at a black wall that was coming closer and closer with a loud screeching sound as metal was scratching over metal. "How can we stop this? Our weapons can not penetrate these shields!"

"Have faith!" it suddenly chimed beside her. Knowing this voice too well, every Neph'arim close-by turned to its origin, seeing their High-Commander in her full armored glory. "Form a defense line! Shields to the front, weapons ready!"

Like their fear had been washed away by Amun'shek's aura, every combatant took position and not a minute later, they had formed an ordered defense.

In front were those, who could form a shield with their powers. In the back, sharpshooters who had the abilities to foresee the enemy's movements a second before it happened as well as to influence the trajectory of their projectiles to guide them towards their target with deadly precision. The rest were mixed troops with more or less powers, yet armed to the teeth.

Behind the line, Neph'arim with the ability to influence life-energy, were treating the wounded, their touches killing the pain and accelerating the healing.

The black, armored wall came closer and closer. From time to time, sharpshooters used tiny gaps to deliver their deadly load to the enemy. But it couldn't stop them. Now an eerily growling and howling were mixing into the screeching of the metal. The sound of the Skyth, feared throughout the entire galaxy.

Stoically, Amun watched how they were approaching their position. She could literally feel, how her brothers and sisters were trembling with fear. But not her! As a High-Commander and member of the royal family she was supposed to be an inspiration. A leader, who would give everything for her people.

"Get ready! As soon as the shields have fallen, attack without any mercy!" she spoke to the green-haired man, unsheathing her swords. Then, she sprinted towards the enemy, dodging projectiles that were flying her way. Amun'shek's hair was starting to glow red while she was almost about to collide with the shield as, suddenly, she disappeared.

* * *

Influencing and manipulating time was one thing. But using it in combat was an entire different skill only few could master.

Being now between time and space she watched how the enemy was passing her as time was flowing forward. She could see the hideousness of them.

The Skyth consisted of a mixture of different species, both domestic and non-domestic in the galaxy. There were humanoid beings as well as lizard-like ones. Strange-appearing creatures with multiple limbs. Insectoid beasts, which remembered her of the insects living in the royal gardens of her home world.

The variety of combat armor differed widely, as well. Some wore a full battle-armor that could withstand even the heaviest fire and some wore only some pieces that were picked up as loot from the battlefield.

But one thing they all shared was the madness and mutations, originating from excessive exposure to subspace radiation.

Amun'shek knew everything that was known about the Skyth. They weren't a race per se, but a wild bunch of insane creatures, who were claiming to serve a godlike entity that was housing the subspace and had ordered them to subjugate the entire galaxy and kill those who refused to follow them.

A gap in their mass – one fallen enemy – was more than enough for the mesmerizing woman to reenter real space-time and materialize in the middle of them, wreaking havoc among everyone around her.

The two high-energized, red-glowing Nano-Blades cut through armor, flesh and bones like a hot knife through butter. Enemies were falling, limbs were flying and blood in different colors was splattering the entire corridor. Within the first ten seconds and before the Skyth could even react, the shield wall had fallen as well and all the other Neph'arim were now joining the fight.

A projectile was flying towards Amun, but she had foreseen it, disappeared and appeared again to slice down the shooter.

One of the lizard-like creatures tried to attack with its claws, but lost its arm by the first blade and was cut in half by the second one.

Another Skyth, sadly out of range for her blades, was aiming at one of her brethren. So, she threw one of her swords and impaled his skull. Having one hand free now, she drew her sidearm, countered a hostile bayonet strike and shot the attacker in the head. Then she avoided another blow and sent some more enemies to the ground.

For some time it seemed like she fought against an infinite number of enemies, until the last one had finally been slain.

Heavy breathing, Amun'shek let her gaze wander over the countless corpses that were filling the entire corridor, Skyth and Neph'arim, side-by-side. Her entire body was sprinkled with blood that was also decorating the entire battlefield.

"Your highness!" spoke the panicky brunette woman from before, reaching Amun'shek her thrown sword.

"Thank you, guardsman!" she answered, took the blade and put it back into the sheath as well as the rest of her weapons. Realizing that only few had survived the battle and the green-haired guard wasn't one of them, the High-Commander quickly decided to put her in charge. "Take care of our dead and wounded, and then get this filth off our ship…High-Guardsman!"

Being taken aback by the sudden promotion, the young woman stared at the red-haired princess with wide open eyes, stammering "Yes…uh…th-thank you, your highness! I-I'm honored!"

"As I said, have faith! You fought well and I have faith that you won't disappoint me!" was the simple reply, and without another word, Amun walked back to the bridge.

* * *

The space outside was a debris field, the remainder of the Skyth-ships floating dead in the merciless vacuum.

" _Safety-distance reached. No threatening activities detected. Front-Lances fully powered and ready!"_ it chimed through the bridge's PA.

"Target the main reactor!" ordered Pta'rek with folded arms and a grim gaze. Right before he gave the fire-command, the vast blast-door glided open and Amun'shek walked in.

"Finish it!" she simply stated with her authoritarian voice and right away the bridge got filled with an intense light as the giant laser beams connected with the hostile flagship, which perished in a giant explosion not a second later, ripping most of the other ship-remains with it.

As the brightness had abated and only a fine cloud of ionized dust was everything left of the hostile fleet, Amun'shek said "Commander, status-report!"

"Damage to our ships minimal. All vessels full operational. Casualties estimated by about 1,400 crew-members."

At hearing this last number, the High-Commanders shoulders dropped a bit. "1,400…" she whispered with a heavy voice while her eyes got a bit watery. Only with a deep, shaky inhale she regained her composure. "I want each and every name of our fallen brethren written onto the _Wall of eternal Remembrance_!"

"Of course, High-Commander! They will be remembered until time's demise." replied Pta'rek with a bow, making a note in his handheld device.

" _Incoming transmission!"_

Right away as the faces of her sister and her bond-mate appeared, Amun reported "Enemy ships destroyed, boarding-troops eliminated. We will now follow up…"

"The enemy has stopped." interrupted her Ra'shek harshly, scowling at her sister. Sensing the tension that was about to build up, Juno'ka threw in a different urgent topic.

"Our sensors are reading a high peak of an unknown subspace radiation originating from the enemy ships."

"They probably try to jump," replied Ra, and then addressed her sister once more. "Amun, get back into formation right now! We need to finish-…"

A loud alert began to blurt on every Neph'arim ship in unison, followed by the automated voice of the ship's computer.

" _Warning! Local sun reaches critical condition! Immediate evacuation recommended!"_

"Juno, what is going on?" asked Amun'shek the bluenette, who was already checking something off-screen.

"The local sun has been destabilized out of unknown reasons and will reach its critical mass in less than five minutes." she began to summarize and froze for a moment, before she stared back at the two others with dilated eyes. "And it's not only this sun. The subspace sensors are picking up the same phenomenon with at least one million suns in the entire local area of the Beta-Arm. Ra, Amun…we need to jump to a safe distance or else we will be trapped and obliterated!"

"Give the order! I will send the coordinates for the rally point." commanded Ra'shek, ending the call.

"Amun, we see us at the rally point!" said Juno to Amun in a hurry before her image vanished as well.

Amun'shek's witnessed how her sister's and Juno'ka's ships changed course, but then also gazed at the remaining enemy vessels, which were still floating in space, the sensors indicating that they were firing up their subspace engines as well. She didn't want to let them get away. Not after so much had already been sacrificed. So, she came up with a new plan.

"All ships, jump to the rally-point!" she spoke into the com, receiving confirmation from the other ships and then addressed Pta'rek. "Commander, set course towards the Skyth and ready three _Rak'tar-Bombs!_ "

The Commander froze for a moment before he eventually nodded and confirmed the order with a plain "Yes, High-Commander!"

Then, the com-symbols on Amun's console started to blink again. The red-haired woman, however, ignored the call from her sister and just activated the connection to her bond-mate.

"Amun, what are you doing?"

"I am going to finish it!"

"Amun," Juno'ka replied with a sigh and shaking head, "as noble as your plan might seem, you will not make it in time. They will have jumped into subspace before you would be able to destroy them."

"I am going to use your _Rak'tar-Bombs._ "

"Amun, the _Rakir-Taro'ur-Bombs_ are still in development and have never been tested before!"

"Then it is time to put them to practical trials!" was the red-head's answer, followed by a slight smirk. "Do not worry, I will be right behind you!"

"Take care, my love!" were the bluenette's last words before she cut the connection, knowing that she couldn't convince her bond-mate to change her mind.

"Bombs loaded and ready, High-Commander!" reported Pta'rek, awaiting orders.

As all the other Neph'arim ships jumped into subspace, Amun gazed one last over her shoulder at the system's flickering, ever-growing star, realizing that time was running out.

"Target the Skyth ships and fire!"

Three small objects were jettisoned into space, only to disappear into subspace a few seconds later.

The first explosion ripped one ship apart from the inside. A second vast explosion destroyed a second vessel only partially, yet also damaged the third one, though the third bomb exploded far way off.

" _Warning! Local sun reaches critical condition! Immediate evacuation recommended!"_ it chimed from the ship's com again, letting Amun'shek curse under her breath. She would've loved to make sure that the enemy would be totally annihilated, yet only had managed to destroy one ship and disable the other two.

"This will have to do. Abort attack and get our ship into subspace!" said the red-haired princess eventually to crew's relieve.

"Very well, Your Highness! Preparing entrance into subspace." replied Pta'rek and not a second later, a loud alarm was blaring through the entire ship.

Amun glanced over her shoulder once more and witnessed with wide open eyes how the sun got bigger and bigger, about to explode and atomizing them any second now.

"Commander!" she urged, almost about to regret her decision to stay a bit longer in the system, until an easing "Engaging subspace sequence!" sounded and the _Shi'ha_ opened a gap into the fabric of reality and went into subspace.

But with that, the danger was far away from being over. When a sun exploded, it disturbed time-space so much that it even induced heavy ripples and tidal-waves throughout the subspace. In this case, a million suns were exploding simultaneously, which turned the normally quiet long-range travel into a deathly endeavor.

The ship was heavily shaken whenever another wave hit its shields. Alarms were blaring; Neph'arim lost their balance and hit the ground. More than once, Amun feared that her ship would get ripped and twisted into pieces.

" _Warning! Subspace unstable. Abort recommended! Abort…"_

Then, a giant wave hit the ship hard and Amun had to scream out loud as some force rushed through her mind and let her see things that nobody should've seen.


End file.
